Always making demands of God is a part of man’s nature, and you must dissect this nature according to God’s word. How should you dissect it? The first step is to be clear about which unreasonable demands, and which extravagant desires people have with regard to God, and you should dissect each and every one of them: Why do people make that demand? What is their motive? What is their aim? The more you conscientiously dissect it in this way, the more understanding you’ll have of your own nature, and the more detailed that understanding will become. If you do not dissect it in detail, but just know that people shouldn’t make demands of God, only understanding that making demands of God is unreasonable, and that’s it, then ultimately you will make no progress, and you will not change. Some people say: “We have so many demands of God because we’re too selfish. What should we do?” Naturally, people must understand the truth and know the essence of selfishness. When you truly understand the essence of human selfishness, you will know what you lack; what is frightening is if people cannot understand this. It is easy to recognize obvious extravagant or unreasonable demands through dissection, and possible to hate yourself. Sometimes you might think that your demands are reasonable and fair, and because you deem them reasonable and think that’s the way things should be, and because others make similar demands, it may seem to you that your demands aren’t excessive, but are justifiable and natural. This shows that you still don’t have the truth, which is why you cannot clearly understand them. Here’s an example: Suppose that there was a man who followed God for many years, and suffered a lot through many storms and challenges. He always appeared to behave well, and seemed okay in terms of his humanity, his suffering, and his loyalty to God. He was even rather possessed of conscience, willing to repay God’s love, and usually knew to step carefully while carrying out his work. Later, I discovered that this man spoke clearly and nicely, but wasn’t submissive in the slightest, so I replaced him and commanded that he not be used again in the future. He had worked for the church for several years, and suffered a lot, and yet he was ultimately replaced. What’s more, I hadn’t resolved some of his practical difficulties. What would people think of this kind of situation? First, many people would come to his defense and say, “That’s not okay. In these circumstances God should show him great mercy and grace, because he loves God, and expends for Him. If someone like him, who has believed in God for many years, can be eliminated, what hope do new believers like us have?” Here come people’s demands once more, always hoping that God will bless that person, and let him remain, while still thinking: “That guy has done right by God, God shouldn’t let him down!” So many of the demands that people make of God arise from human notions and imaginings. People are measuring what God should give to people, and how He should treat them according to the standards of conscience for what is fair and reasonable among men, but how can this be in line with the truth? Why do I say that mankind’s demands are all unreasonable? Because they are the standards that people demand from other people. Do people have the truth? Are they able to see through to man’s essence? Some people demand that God treat people according to the standard of conscience, holding God to the standard demanded of humans. This isn’t in line with the truth, and it is unreasonable. People are able to endure when it comes to some small matters, but may not be able to bear it when their outcome is ultimately determined. Their demands will come out, and words of complaint and condemnation will flow from their mouths without restraint, and they will start to show their true colors. At that time, they will know their own nature. People are always making demands of God according to human notions and their own will, and they make many demands of this sort. You may not normally notice, and think that occasionally praying to God for something doesn’t count as a demand, but actually, careful dissection shows that many human demands are unreasonable, lacking in reason, and even ridiculous. You didn’t recognize the seriousness of this matter before, but you will gradually come to know it in the future, and then you will have a true understanding of your own nature. Little by little, experience will bring you knowledge and discernment of your nature, and, in combination with fellowshipping on the truth, you will come to know it clearly—then you will have entered into the truth in this respect. When you truly understand man’s nature essence clearly, your disposition will change, and then you will have the truth.

Nothing is more difficult to handle than people constantly making demands of God. As soon as God’s actions do not correspond with your thinking, or haven’t been carried out in accordance with your thinking, then you are likely to resist—which is sufficient to show that, in nature, you are resistant to God. Recognition of this problem can only be achieved by frequently reflecting on yourself and reaching an understanding of the truth, and it can only be fully resolved by pursuing the truth. When people do not understand the truth, they make many demands of God, whereas when they truly understand the truth, they make none; they feel only that they have not satisfied God enough, that they do not submit to God enough. That people always make demands of God reflects their corrupt nature. If you cannot know yourself and truly repent concerning this matter, then you will face hidden dangers and peril on your path of belief in God. You are able to overcome ordinary things, but when important matters such as your fate, prospects, and destination are involved, you will perhaps be unable to overcome them. At that time, if you still lack the truth, you may well fall back upon your old ways, and will thus become one of those who are destroyed. Many people have always followed and believed in this way; they’ve behaved well during the time that they’ve followed God, but this does not determine what will happen in the future. This is because you are never aware of man’s Achilles’ heel, or the things that are within man’s nature that can come to oppose God, and before they lead you to disaster, you remain ignorant of these things. Because the issue of your nature opposing God goes unresolved, it sets you up for disaster, and it is possible that when your journey ends and God’s work finishes, you will do that which most opposes God and say that which is blasphemous against Him, and thus you will be condemned and eliminated. At the final moment, at the most perilous of times, Peter tried to escape. At the time, he did not understand God’s will, and planned to survive and do the work of the churches. Later, Jesus appeared to him and said: “Would you have Me crucified for you once more?” Peter then understood God’s will, and was quick to submit. Suppose that, at that moment, he had his own demands and said, “I don’t want to die now, I fear pain. Were You not crucified for our sake? Why do You ask that I be crucified? Can I be spared from crucifixion?” If he had made such demands, then the path he had walked would have been in vain. But Peter had always been a person who submitted to God and sought His will, and, in the end, he understood God’s will and submitted completely. If Peter had not sought God’s will and had acted according to his own thinking, then he would have taken the wrong path. People lack the faculties to understand God’s will directly, but if they do not submit after understanding the truth, then they are betraying God. That is to say, people always making demands of God relates to their nature: The more demands they have, the more rebellious and resistant they are, and the more notions they have. The more demands someone makes of God, the more likely it is that they will rebel against, resist, and even oppose Him. Perhaps one day they could betray and leave God. If you want to solve this problem, you need to understand several aspects of the truth, and also have some practical experience in order to understand it thoroughly and completely resolve it.

In measuring whether or not people can submit to God, the key is whether or not they have any extravagant desires or ulterior motives toward Him. If people are always making demands of God, it proves that they are not submissive to Him. No matter what happens to you, if you do not accept it from God, and you do not seek the truth, and you are always arguing for yourself and always feeling that only you are right, and if you are even capable of doubting that God is the truth and righteousness, then you will be in trouble. Such people are the most arrogant and rebellious to God. People who always make demands of God cannot truly submit to Him. If you make demands of God, this proves that you are trying to make a deal with God, that you are choosing your own will, and acting according to it. In this, you are betraying God, and you lack submission. To make demands of God is in and of itself lacking in sense; if you truly believe that He is God, then you will not dare to make demands of Him, nor will you feel qualified to make demands of Him, whether you think them reasonable or not. If you have true belief in God, and believe that He is God, then you will only worship and submit to Him, there is no other choice. People today not only make their own choices, they even ask God to act according to their own will. Not only do they not choose to submit to God, they even ask God to submit to them. Isn’t this so lacking in reason? Therefore, if there is no true faith within a person, and no substantial belief, they can never obtain God’s approval. When people are able to make fewer demands of God, they have more true faith and submission, and their sense of reason is comparatively normal. It is often the case that the more inclined to argue people are, and the more justifications they have, the harder they are to deal with. Not only do they have many demands, but if you give them an inch, they’ll want a mile. When they are satisfied in one respect, they’ll then make demands in another. They have to be satisfied in all respects, and if they are not, they start complaining, and write things off as hopeless and act recklessly. Afterward, they feel indebted and remorseful, and they weep bitter tears, and want to die. What is the use in that? Are they not being unreasonable and relentlessly vexatious? This series of problems has to be resolved from the root. If you have a corrupt disposition and don’t resolve it, if you wait until you get into trouble or cause a disaster to resolve it, how can you make up for this loss? Won’t this be a bit like locking the barn door after the horse has already bolted? Therefore, to completely resolve the problem of your corrupt disposition, you must seek the truth to resolve it when it first arises. You must solve the corrupt disposition in its budding state, thereby ensuring that you will not do anything wrong and preventing future troubles. If a corrupt disposition takes root and becomes a person’s thoughts or viewpoint, it will be able to direct a person to do evil. Therefore, self-reflection and self-knowledge is mainly about discovering one’s corrupt dispositions, and quickly seeking the truth to resolve them. You must know what things are in your nature, what you like, what you pursue, and what you want to obtain. You must dissect these things according to God’s words to see if they are in line with God’s will, and in what way they are fallacious. Once you understand these things, you must resolve the problem of your abnormal reason, which is to say, the problem of your unreasonable and relentless vexatiousness. This is not only the problem of your corrupt disposition, it also touches on your lack of reason. Especially in matters where their interests are concerned, people who get carried away by self-interest do not possess normal reason. This is a psychological problem, and this is also people’s Achilles’ heel. Some people feel that they have a certain caliber and some gifts, and they always want to be leaders and to stand out, so they ask God to use them. If God doesn’t use them, they say, “How can God not favor me? God, if You use me to do something important, I promise I’ll expend for You!” Is this kind of intention correct? It is a good thing to expend for God, but there are motivations behind their willingness to expend for God. What they love is status, and this is what they focus on. When people are capable of true submission, following God wholeheartedly regardless of whether God uses them or not, and expending for God regardless of whether they have status or not, only then can they be considered to possess reason and to be submissive to God. It is good when people are willing to expend for God, and God is willing to use such people, but if they aren’t equipped with the truth, God has no way to use them. If people are willing to strive toward the truth and cooperate, there must be a preparatory stage. Only after people understand the truth and can genuinely submit to God will God be able to formally use them. This training stage is essential. Leaders and workers today are all in this training stage. After they have life experience and can handle matters with principles, they will be fit to be used by God.

The things in man’s nature are not like some outward behaviors, practices, or thoughts and ideas that can just be pruned and that’s it; they must be unearthed bit by bit. Moreover, they are not easy for people to identify, and even if identified, they are not easy to change—doing so requires an adequately profound understanding. Why do we always dissect man’s nature? Don’t you understand what that means? Where do the revelations of people’s corrupt dispositions come from? They all come from within their nature, and they are all governed by their nature. Every one of man’s corrupt dispositions, every thought and idea, every intention, are all related to man’s nature. Therefore, by directly unearthing man’s nature, their corrupt dispositions can be easily resolved. Though it is not easy to change people’s nature, if they can discern and see through to the corrupt dispositions they reveal, and if they can seek the truth to resolve them, then they can gradually change their dispositions. Once a person has achieved a change in their life disposition, then there will be fewer and fewer things in them that resist God. The purpose of dissecting man’s nature is to change their dispositions. You haven’t grasped this aim, and think that just by dissecting and understanding your nature you can submit to God and restore your reason. All you do is just blindly apply regulations! Why is it that I do not simply expose people’s arrogance and self-righteousness? Why must I also dissect their corrupt nature? It won’t solve the problem if I only expose their self-righteousness and arrogance. But if I dissect their nature, the aspects that this covers are very broad, and it includes all corrupt dispositions. It is more than just the narrow range of self-righteousness, self-importance, and arrogance. Nature includes much more than this. So, it would be good if people could recognize just how many corrupt dispositions they are revealing in all their various demands of God, that is, in their extravagant desires. Once people understand their own nature essence, they can then hate and deny themselves; it will be easy for them to resolve their corrupt dispositions, and they will have a path. Otherwise, you will never dig out the root cause, and will only say that this is self-righteousness, arrogance, or pride, or having no loyalty at all. Can only talking about such superficial things solve your problem? Is there any need to discuss man’s nature? In the beginning, what was the nature of Adam and Eve? There was no intentional resistance within them, much less open betrayal. They didn’t know what it meant to resist God, much less what it meant to submit to Him. Whatever Satan disseminated, they accepted into their hearts. Now Satan has corrupted mankind to such an extent that people can rebel against and resist God in all things, and can think up all sorts of ways to oppose Him. It’s evident that man’s nature is the same as Satan’s. Why do I say that man’s nature is the nature of Satan? Satan is that which resists God, and because people have satanic natures, they are of Satan. While people may not intentionally do things to resist God, because of their satanic nature, all of their thoughts are resistant toward God. Even if people do nothing at all, they are still resisting God, because man’s internal essence has changed into something which resists God. Present man, therefore, is different from newly created man. There was no resistance or betrayal within people before, they were full of life, and not governed by any satanic nature. If there is no domination or disturbance of a satanic nature within people, then no matter what they do, it cannot be considered resisting God.

What is nature? Nature is man’s essence. Dispositions are things that are revealed from one’s nature, and a change in disposition means that one’s corrupt disposition has been purified and replaced with the truth. What is therefore revealed is then not a corrupt disposition, but a manifestation of normal humanity. After Satan corrupted man, man became an embodiment of Satan, and the sort of satanic thing that resists God and is entirely capable of betraying Him. Why does God require people to change their dispositions? Because God wants to perfect and gain people, finally making humans who possess a lot of additional realities of knowing God, and the realities of all aspects of the truth. People like this are completely in accordance with God’s will. In the past, people had corrupt dispositions, and would make a mistake or show resistance whenever they did something, but now people understand some truths, and can do many things that are in line with God’s will. However, this doesn’t mean that people don’t betray God. People still can do this. A part of what is revealed from their nature can be changed, and the part that can change is the part where people are able to practice in accordance with the truth. But just because you can now put the truth into practice doesn’t mean that your nature has changed. It is like how people used to always have notions about and demands of God, and now in many respects they don’t—but they might still have notions or demands in some matters, and are still able to betray God. You might say, “I can submit to whatever God does, and submit in many matters without complaint and without demands,” but you can still betray God in some matters. Although you don’t resist God on purpose, when you don’t understand His will you can still go against it. So, what is meant by the part that can change? It’s that when you understand God’s will, you can submit, and when you understand the truth, you can put it into practice. If you don’t understand the truth or God’s will in some matters, then there is still a possibility that you could reveal corruption. If you understand the truth, but do not put it into practice because you are constrained by certain things, then this is betrayal, and this is something in your nature. Of course, there is no limit to how much your disposition can change. The more truths you gain, that is, the deeper your knowledge of God becomes, the less you will resist and betray Him. Seeking to change one’s disposition is mainly achieved by pursuing the truth, and understanding one’s own nature essence is achieved through understanding the truth. When one truly gains the truth, all of their problems will be resolved.

Winter, 1999