Pursuing the truth is not an easy matter. People must learn to see things according to God’s words. In the past, people had many wrong views. If they do not seek the truth, they will not realize them, and will still carry on like before, thinking they are right, and being arrogant and self-righteous, where even if you prune them they still will not admit their mistake. It is very hard to change the perspective from which people who do not pursue the truth view things. For example, when some people see that there is a person in the church who used to lead a company, feelings of respect and admiration arise in their hearts. They envy, admire, look up to, and even revere people like this. This person has status in their hearts. What should be done in this situation? You should discern this person and treat them in accordance with the truth principles, and see whether they are someone who loves the truth and pursues the truth, and whether they are someone worthy of respect. If, after interacting with them and discerning them, you discover they are not this sort of person, you will not look up to that person in your heart anymore, and will not hold them in high esteem. You should treat them and interact with them in a regular way. What does it mean to treat them in a regular way? It means being able to treat them correctly. People’s hearts are full of their own preferences, wishes, and pursuits, and their values reveal themselves in many minute behaviors. If there is someone they revere, when they talk about them, their words will be especially tactful and polite, and they will refer to them in a particularly respectful manner. What does this indicate? That this person has status in their heart, and they look up to this person. Besides this, there are other things they say. They often say, “This person used to be an official. If they come to the house of God and are treated as a regular person, it would not be befitting.” In their mind, they think God’s house does not put importance on talented individuals. Such an elite personage was able to humble themselves and come into God’s house, be a believer and perform a duty, yet no one looked up to them or promoted them, and the Above did not make a special point of introducing them to the brothers and sisters. You ask them how this person’s duties are going, and they say, “This person used to own a company, and had several thousand people under them. Doing this little bit of work is nothing to them. There is no one in God’s house who is of higher caliber than them. They are an elite. There are no elites in God’s house.” What kind of talk is this? They think the secular world has elites, but the house of God does not. People in the house of God have the truth—do people in the secular world have the truth? You say the secular world has elites, so why don’t you believe in the elites? Why have you come here to believe in God? You have notions about God, and should hurry on back to the secular world. Doesn’t the fact they are capable of saying things like this mean it is Satan’s voice? It is Satan’s voice. They believe in God and come into God’s house, but exalt Satan. They have nearly said, “If a certain famous person believes in God, they will be the one who is of the highest caliber. If they cannot be perfected, then there’s no hope for the rest of us. In their eyes, we are nothing.” In their heart and in their eyes, people who believe in God are not as good as the famous people, entrepreneurs, and officials in the secular world. Only those people are elites, and those who carry weight. When you read between the lines of what they say, are they someone who pursues the truth? (No.) No matter how many sermons they listen to, their views and thoughts, their opinions of the world, and their opinions and views of famous people and elites don’t change. Have they gained the truth? Do they have life entry? (No.) What is this person? (A nonbeliever.) They are a nonbeliever. They are a Judas and a traitor! In their mind, God is not the most high and the truth is not the most high. Rather, worldly power, prestige, fame, and gain are the most high. This person is a traitor. These are the thoughts and views of Judas. They are the thoughts and logic of Satan. Even though these people can understand the truth, their thoughts and views will not change. What they pursue is reputation, status, and power. When you are around someone like this, the expression they have when talking to you isn’t right, and it gives you a certain feeling: that this person is hard to get close to, and the average person is invisible to them. That’s why they are capable of having so many notions about God. No matter how many truths God can express, there is always a barrier in their heart between them and God. They think the normal humanity of God incarnate is ordinary, and not at all great or mighty. That’s why they are capable of revering knowledge and gifts, and idolizing great personages. When arrogant, self-important, and conceited people like this who are filled with a satanic disposition see Christ who has normal humanity and is full of truth, how can they bow down and worship Him? Inside, they think, “You are God. You only have the truth. You don’t have knowledge. I have gifts; my knowledge is more advanced than Yours; my talents are more advanced than Yours; my ability to handle things is stronger than Yours, and I am better at speaking with the outside world than You.” When they do some work in the church, have some capital, or make some contribution, they think even less of God. Is this a person who pursues the truth? (No.) People who do not pursue the truth exhibit a myriad of ugly behavior, and do not have an ounce of reason. So these people often get caught up in the outward phenomena of people, events, and things—one moment they think God is right, one moment they think He is wrong; one moment they think there is a God, one moment they think there is no God; one moment they think God is the One who is sovereign over the heavens and earth and all things, one moment they doubt that God is sovereign over the heavens and earth and all things. Their heart is always conflicted and battling. Although the second type of person has spiritual understanding and understands the truth in the most shallow sense of its meaning—which is that of mere words and doctrine, which still counts as having some comprehension abilities—while they are able to understand some truths, they never put them into practice. What are their manifestations? The pursuit of work, the pursuit of being blessed, the pursuit of satisfying their own vague faith and spiritual sustenance, and the pursuit of reputation and status. This is the second type of person.

The third type are people who have spiritual understanding and pursue the truth. People who have spiritual understanding can understand what God’s words are saying, take the various states exposed in God’s words and draw comparisons with themselves, and recognize what is problematic about their state. However, being able to draw comparisons does not mean you are someone who pursues the truth. If, after drawing comparisons with yourself, you practice and enter in, only then are you someone who pursues the truth. If people can understand God’s words, and use the principles of God’s words that they understand as a foundation on which to truly enter in, how do people like this manifest themselves in terms of pursuing the truth? For one thing, they can accept God’s commission, and perform their duty well. For another, they can seek the truth when facing the circumstances God arranged, and achieve submission. Another aspect is that they put importance on examining every aspect of their states and revelations in their daily life, and are then able to draw comparisons with themselves according to God’s words, resolve problems, and are able to get to the point where they are principled in the way they approach every sort of matter, and have a path to practice in every sort of matter. For example, the last time I fellowshipped and dissected Paul’s seven major sins, you must be able to draw comparisons with yourselves, truly understand it, and practice and enter in. Drawing comparisons and life entry are intricately connected to each other. Being able to draw comparisons with yourself is the gateway to life entry. How you enter after going through the gateway will depend on whether you understand this aspect of the truth. When you understand an aspect of the truth, you can enter into an aspect of reality, and when you understand two aspects of the truth, you can enter into two aspects of reality. If you just understand the doctrine and do not have the principles of entry, then you will be unable to enter into reality. Therefore, it is key that you first understand a lot of truths. How can you understand them? You must read a lot of God’s words, ponder His words, draw connections between them and your real life and the duties you perform, find principles of practice, and find a path to practice. Then, it will be easy to enter into reality. If some real problems exist, you must compare them to relevant passages of God’s words, and resolve them. If you have notions or misunderstandings about God, then it is even more necessary to draw comparisons with God’s words, be able to discern in what way these notions or misunderstandings are actually wrong, and what nature of problems they are. You must be able to dissect these problems, then seek the corresponding truths to fix them. This is the path to life entry. Paul did so much work, but did he have a path to life entry? Absolutely not. What was the first of Paul’s seven major sins? He treated the pursuit of a crown and the pursuit of blessings as appropriate objectives. In what way is treating the pursuit of blessings as an objective wrong? It flies completely in the face of the truth, and is not congruent with God’s will to save people. Since being blessed is not an appropriate objective for people to pursue, what is an appropriate objective? The pursuit of the truth, the pursuit of changes in disposition, and being able to submit to all of God’s orchestrations and arrangements: these are the objectives that people should pursue. Say, for example, being pruned causes you to have notions and misunderstandings, and you become incapable of submission. Why can’t you submit? Because you feel that your destination or your dream of being blessed has been challenged. You become negative and upset, and try to get out of doing your duty. What is the reason for this? There is a problem with your pursuit. So how should this be solved? It is imperative that you immediately abandon these mistaken ideas, and that you immediately seek the truth to solve the problem of your corrupt disposition. You should say to yourself, “I must not quit, I must still do well the duty that a created being ought to, and put aside my desire to be blessed.” When you relinquish the desire to be blessed and you walk the path of pursuing the truth, a weight is lifted off your shoulders. And will you still be capable of negativity? Even though there are still times when you are negative, you don’t let this constrain you, and in your heart, you keep praying and fighting, changing the objective of your pursuit from the pursuit of being blessed and having a destination, to the pursuit of the truth, and you think to yourself, “The pursuit of the truth is the duty of a created being. To understand certain truths today—there is no greater harvest, this is the greatest blessing of all. Even if God does not want me, and I do not have a good destination, and my hopes of being blessed are shattered, I shall still do my duty properly, I am obligated to. Whatever the reason, it will not impact my performance of my duty, it will not affect my accomplishment of God’s commission; this is the principle by which I conduct myself.” And in this, have you not transcended the constraints of the flesh? Some may say, “Well, what if I’m still negative?” Then seek the truth again to resolve it. However many times you fall into negativity, if you just keep on seeking the truth to resolve it, and keep on striving for the truth, you will slowly emerge from your negativity. And one day, you will feel that you do not have the desire to gain blessings and are not constrained by your destination and outcome, and that you are easier and freer living without these things. You will feel that the life you had before, whose every day you lived for the purpose of gaining blessings and your destination, was exhausting. Every day, speaking, working, and racking your brains for the sake of gaining blessings—and what would that have gained you, in the end? What is the value of such a life? You did not pursue the truth, but wasted all your best days on insignificant things. In the end, you did not gain any truth, and you were unable to speak of any experiential testimony. You made a fool of yourself, utterly disgraced and failed. And what is the cause of this, really? It is that your intent to gain blessings was too strong, that your outcome and destination occupied your heart and bound you too tightly. Yet when the day comes on which you emerge from the bondage of your prospects and destiny, you will be able to leave everything behind and follow God. When will you be able to let go of those things completely? As your life entry ceaselessly deepens, you will achieve a change in your disposition, and that is when you will be able to let go of them completely. Some say, “I can let go of those things whenever I want.” Is this consistent with natural law? (No.) Others say, “I figured all this out overnight. I’m a simple person, not complicated or fragile like the rest of you. Your ambitions and desires are too great, which shows you’re more deeply corrupted than I am.” Is that the situation? It is not. All humankind has the same corrupted nature, undifferentiated in depth. The only difference between them lies in whether or not they have humanity, and in what kind of person they are. Those who love and accept the truth are capable of a relatively deep, clear knowledge of their own corrupt disposition, and others mistakenly think that such people are deeply corrupt. Those who do not love or accept the truth are always thinking that they have no corruption, that with a few more good behaviors, they will be holy people. This viewpoint is obviously invalid—it is not, in fact, that their corruption is shallow, but that they do not understand the truth and have no clear knowledge of the essence and truth of their corruption. In brief, to believe in God, one must accept the truth, practice the truth, enter reality, and achieve changes in their life disposition before they can alter the incorrect direction and path of their pursuit, and before they can completely resolve the problem of pursuing blessings and walking the path of antichrists. In this way, one can be saved and perfected by God. All the truths that God expresses to judge and purify man work toward this end.

Now, are there any among you who still have the desire to be God? (No.) Is the reason you don’t have this desire because you do not dare to, or because you don’t have hope or the appropriate background and environment? It’s hard to say. Firstly, it’s certain that there is no one who wishes to actively pursue being God. However, if, in special circumstances, there were people who revered you, exalted you, often complimented and commended you, you had status in their eyes, and they unconsciously established you as a sort of perfect and mighty image—although they did not testify that you were God, and they knew that you were human, they still revered you, obeyed you, and treated you as though you were God—how would you feel inside? Would you not feel exceptional enjoyment and satisfaction? (Yes.) This is enough to prove that you still have this desire. Everyone who has a corrupt disposition has the desire to be God. It is just that when no one treats you like God, you feel you are not qualified. When you feel that you are qualified, the environment is right, and the conditions are sufficient, you will elevate yourself to that position. Or, maybe you won’t elevate yourself, but when other people single-mindedly elevate you, will you still be modest? You’d accept the elevation “without reservation.” What is going on here? Satan’s nature has entrenched itself deep inside people, and remains unresolved—people never want to be people, they always want to be God. Can a person be God just by wishing it? Satan always wanted to be God, and what happened to it? It was cast down from heaven to earth. Such was Satan’s fate for wanting to be God. Tell Me, how do I feel about My own identity, status, and essence? You certainly do not know. I don’t feel anything; everything is very normal. God incarnate is especially practical and normal. There is nothing supernatural about Him, He has no particular feelings. You know what you think; you know what you like; you know which family you were born into, how old you are, and how much education you’ve received; you know how you look. But is it normal to know what your inner essence is, or is it normal to not know? (It is normal to not know.) It is normal to not have any feelings about this. Having feelings about it would be supernatural. It would not be of the flesh, and would not be normal humanity. Supernaturality is abnormal. Those who always express themselves in abnormal ways and have abnormal feelings are evil spirits, not mortal beings. Some people ask Me if I know who I am. Tell Me, would I know? Should I know? I have the logic, and ways of thinking of normal humanity. I have normal thoughts, and a normal routine life of the flesh. I have the conscience, rationality, and judgment of normal humanity, and I have the principles of self-comportment, handling matters, and interacting with others of normal humanity. These things are all clear. As far as how to do things, how to treat different people, how to help people, and which people to help, I have all of these principles. Living in normal humanity and doing the things I should is normal humanity. There is nothing supernatural about it. God does not do supernatural things. It is normal that I do not know. If I did, it would spell trouble. Why would it spell trouble? If I knew, I would have a burden; there are too many matters that would be implicated, and they would be at odds with each other. The part that knows is not of the flesh or the material world; it is supernatural, and is at odds with the matters of this world. Just like how some people can see things that happen in the spiritual realm. They live in the flesh and in the material world, yet see a non-human, immaterial world. They can see two worlds, and can say some strange things. This is not normal. This will influence other people’s thoughts and work. Apart from this, for people who believe in God and pursue the truth, it is still necessary for them to know something about matters of the spiritual realm. There are many things people have no way of knowing, but not knowing is actually no loss; knowing or not knowing are both fine. God has already delimited the range of things that mortal beings can understand, know, and feel. God does not speak one sentence less of what you need to know—He tells you everything, and does not leave your knowledge lacking. However, He thoroughly seals off what you do not need to know. He will not tell you, and will not unsettle your thoughts and mind. Another aspect is that, to mortal beings, matters of the spiritual realm are a sort of mystery, strange phenomena, or matters of a different world. In their hearts, people want to know a bit about them, but what can you do with such knowledge? Can you verify it? Can you be a part of it? Many matters of the spiritual realm are secret and cannot be revealed before their time. This is something nobody can take part in—knowing a limited amount is sufficient. God is sovereign over this world and this human race, and there are too many mysteries. What we should understand are God’s words and truths, and His will; we should enter into the truth realities, achieve submission to all of God’s sovereignty that people can access, understand and recognize it, and then become able to fear God, acknowledge God as your Creator, acknowledge the fact that God is sovereign over all, finally becoming able to utter those words that Job said: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). What must people experience to achieve this result? They must experience judgment and chastisement, being pruned, tested, and refined, and experience every sort of circumstance that God arranges, and through which, know God’s deeds, know His disposition, understand the essence of the Creator, and be able to draw comparisons between themselves and the words of God they have read or the sermons they have heard. Ultimately, no matter how God treats them, whether He takes away or gives, they achieve a fair and accurate understanding of God’s deeds, and submit to and accept them in a manner befitting the rationality of created beings. This is what God aims to accomplish.

Let’s return to our topic of fellowship for today. The manifestations of people who pursue the truth, and the manifestations of people who do not pursue the truth are basically these three types. I have made a detailed distinction between these three types of people: The first type are people who do not have spiritual understanding; the second type are people who have spiritual understanding but do not pursue the truth; and the third type are people who have spiritual understanding and pursue the truth. Of these three types of people, which one has hope of entering the truth realities and can achieve salvation? (The third type.) Which type of person has hope of entering the truth realities, meaning they can develop and change into a person who has the truth realities? (The second type.) In this case, has the first type of person effectively been sentenced to death? Can people who do not have spiritual understanding turn into people who have spiritual understanding, or who have a half-understanding? There is a bit of hope for those who do not have spiritual understanding to become those who have a half-understanding; this is somewhat better than not having spiritual understanding at all. Of these three types of people, which has a greater hope of being saved? (The third type.) What about the second type of person? (It depends on their personal pursuit. If they are able to truly turn things around, repent, and pursue the truth, then they can have hope of being saved.) Let Me be frank with you. You are still not completely clear on the second type of person. Although the second type of person has spiritual understanding, they are all people who do not pursue the truth, and this is critical. Regardless of whether they have spiritual understanding or not, so long as they do not pursue the truth, they absolutely cannot achieve salvation. The thing I want to emphasize here is the first type of people, those who do not have spiritual understanding. Say that they do not have spiritual understanding but they have good humanity, and they expend themselves for God willingly, heed whatever God says, and have a submissive heart—it’s just that they do not have comprehension ability when it comes to the truth—but they can understand some of God’s words and check themselves against them, and then practice and enter into them. Such people have hope of being saved. They can come gradually to have spiritual understanding by undergoing such an experience for a while. The more intently they read the words of God, the more the Holy Spirit enlightens them; they are able to compare whatever they understand of God’s words with their own states, accept God’s pruning, judgment, chastisement, trials, and refinement, pay the price for this, and, in the end, achieve some corresponding changes in their disposition. Such people also count as those who pursue the truth. Since they’re considered to be those who pursue the truth, do they then have hope of being saved? (Yes.) They do—thus, such people cannot be consigned to death. On the contrary, it is hard to say what the outcome will be for the sort of people who can understand the truth and hold themselves up against it for comparison, yet never enter it. What is the root of this problem? (Their attitude toward the truth.) It is their attitude toward the truth, which is one of irreverence and disdain. What does “disdain” mean? It means not accepting the truth; it means looking down on the truth. It means not acknowledging the words of God as the truth, and not regarding them seriously. No matter how much they understand of what they hear, they do not practice the truth; and, no matter the extent to which they hold themselves up against it for comparison, even if they know what sort of people they are, they still do not repent. Although they know that the most crucial aspect of believing in God is practicing the truth, the word “practice” is irrelevant to such people. Such people are not easily saved.

Now, how should we define pursuing the truth? What exactly is pursuing the truth? Who can tell Me? (Being able to accept God’s words, use God’s words to reflect on oneself and draw comparisons with oneself, and also having life entry. Only this counts as pursuing the truth.) That’s right. Only by being able to accept the truth and practice the truth is someone a person who pursues the truth. If they do not accept God’s words and cannot reflect on themselves, then they will not have life entry, and are not a person who pursues the truth. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between pursuing the truth and life entry. If a person is able to speak a lot of words and doctrines, but has never practiced the truth, does not have true faith in God, and even if they clearly know something is God’s sovereignty and arrangements and comes from God, they do not submit, and they resist, judge, and keep rebelling, and they still live according to satanic philosophies, and do things according to their own preferences, then they are not someone who pursues the truth. Some people have spiritual understanding and can understand God’s words, but do not love the truth, so they do not practice the truth—such people are not those who pursue the truth. Some people are willing to pursue the truth, but their caliber is too poor, and they fall short of the truth. As a result, they believe in God for many years but cannot understand the truth. Are people like this those who pursue the truth? No. What major manifestations do people who do not pursue the truth have? The foremost manifestations are that they do not read God’s words, and are not willing to pray to God, let alone fellowship on the truth, and are even unwilling to attend gatherings or listen to sermons. When they listen to sermons, they feel as though every word is directed at them, and is exposing them, which makes them feel pinned and uncomfortable. So, whenever it’s time to listen to a sermon, they just want to sleep or engage in idle talk. There are a good number of people like this. They only believe in God in order to be blessed, not in order to accept the truth, gain the truth, cast off their corruption, live out a human likeness, or attain salvation from God. The root of the problem is primarily that they do not love the truth and are not interested in the truth. They believe in God only to gain blessings. This is the sole focus of their yearning. For the sake of obtaining blessings, they can labor and give things up, but they cannot accept the truth and are not interested in the truth. They think it is enough to understand doctrines, that doing fewer evil deeds means they have changed, and that laboring, giving things up, and suffering on top of that qualifies them to be blessed. This is their view of belief in God. Therefore, no matter how many years they believe, no matter how much doctrine they understand and can preach, and no matter how many words that align with the truth come out of their mouths, they are never able to practice the truth, the dispositions they reveal remain willful, indulgent, and unbridled, they protect their own pride and interests at every turn, they are especially selfish and base, and even when they are reprimanded or pruned, they cannot accept it, and do not have an ounce of submission. Such people do as they please; they do not confer with others before taking action, and even if they do confer with others, it’s only when they have no other choice and just for the sake of formality—they speak indirectly, beating around the bush, and in the end still make others do as they say. What disposition is revealed in this way of doing things? (Deceitfulness.) This is not just deceitfulness; there is something even more severe. No matter how pleasing their words sound when advising others, explaining that these are the arrangements of God’s house and making other people submit, when it comes to themselves, this is not how they perform. Instead, they are intransigent and rebellious, do not submit, and are incapable of submitting to God’s orchestrations and arrangements. Apart from this, how do they manifest themselves when interacting with others? They act in accordance with philosophies for worldly dealings, looking for an advantage at every turn and protecting their personal relationships. People of this type have a disposition which is particularly treacherous. What does this treachery boil down to? It boils down to wickedness. It usually isn’t easy for people to recognize wicked dispositions. When people with wicked dispositions speak with others, there is always an element of temptation and probing for information. They do not say things straight out, and even if they open themselves up, their aim is just to make you speak your heart—they never disclose anything real about themselves. Some people say, “How can You say they never disclose anything real about themselves? They are always fellowshipping with people regarding the corrupt disposition they reveal.” What does that bit of fellowshipping count for? They do not tell anyone what they truly think inside. Also, they use all sorts of tactics and methods, or all sorts of turns of phrase to vigorously cover up and disguise who they are, presenting a false image to people. If some people get to know what they are really like, and know the bad things they did, they just pretend and say a few words of remorse, adopting misleading methods to make people believe they have repented and changed. If they do something bad again and expose their bad deeds, letting people see that they are actually an evil person, they will rack their brain and think of every way they can to cover this fact up and make people still treat them as a brother or sister. What disposition is this? It is a wicked one. Not only do people who have this sort of wicked disposition not accept the truth in any way, but they are skilled at pretending, and always come up with a clever defense or justification for themselves. They are hypocritical Pharisees. What this type of person fears most is people fellowshipping on the truth, people opening their hearts up to know and dissect themselves, or people exposing the true facts of a matter and thereby exposing them. Whenever someone is fellowshipping on the truth, they get particularly annoyed and do not want to listen; their hearts resist it and are put off by it. This completely exposes their ugly aspect of being averse to the truth. Besides understanding the truth but not practicing it, this type of person has another problem, which is that they have an attitude of resistance and disdain toward positive things and correct views, especially toward words which are aligned with the truth. When it comes to any positive thing or any words that are aligned with the truth, so long as it’s not what they consider good or not spoken by them but by someone else, they will not accept it. What disposition is this? Foolishness, intransigence, and stupidity. How should you evaluate whether a person pursues the truth? The primary thing to look at is what they reveal and manifest in their ordinary performance of their duties and their actions. From this, you can see a person’s disposition. From their disposition, you can see whether they have achieved any change or gained any life entry. If someone reveals nothing but corrupt dispositions when they act and has none of the truth realities at all, they are definitely not someone who pursues the truth. Do those who do not pursue the truth have life entry? No, they certainly do not. The things they do every day, their running around, expending, suffering, the price they pay—no matter what it is they do, it is all just laboring, and they are laborers. No matter how many years a person has believed in God, what matters most is whether they love the truth. What a person loves and pursues can be seen from what they like to do the most. If most of the things a person does conform to the truth principles and God’s requirements, then they are one who loves and pursues the truth. If they can practice the truth, and the things they do every day are in the performance of their duty, then they have life entry, and possess the truth realities. Their actions may be inappropriate in certain matters, or they may not grasp the truth principles accurately or they may have stubborn biases in this regard, or sometimes they may be arrogant and self-righteous, insist on their own ways, and fail to accept the truth, but if later they are able to repent and practice the truth, this proves without a doubt that they have life entry and pursue the truth. If what someone reveals in the course of performing their duty is nothing but corrupt dispositions, a mouth full of lies, pridefulness, indulgence, overwhelming haughtiness, that they are a law unto themselves, and that they do whatever they like, and so on, and if, no matter how many years they have believed in God or how many sermons they have heard, there isn’t the slightest change in these corrupt dispositions in the end, then this is certainly not someone who pursues the truth. There are many people who have believed in God for many years, who are not outwardly evil people and even have some good behaviors. They believe in God quite passionately, but their life dispositions do not change at all, and they don’t have even a little experiential testimony to share. Aren’t such people pitiful? After so many years of belief in God, they can’t speak of even the slightest experiential testimony. This is purely a laborer. They truly are pitiful! In short, to evaluate whether a person pursues the truth and has life entry, you must look at their disposition and essence as revealed and expressed by them, and see if there is any change in their disposition. Always speaking words and doctrines, and engaging in disguise and deception, cannot be sustained for long. They only harm themselves, without deceiving others. Those who do not accept the truth and do not pursue the truth will sooner or later be revealed and eliminated. Only those who accept and practice the truth can gain life entry and have a change in disposition.

I have finished fellowshipping on what life entry is, what pursuing the truth is, and all the different manifestations of people who pursue the truth. People should hold these things up for comparison against themselves, and when they understand the truth, they need to put it into practice. What is the biggest difficulty for the majority of people who believe in God? It is that they understand the truth, but don’t practice it. Although they can compare themselves to God’s words after reading them, and are able to gain some knowledge of themselves, why can’t they put the truth into practice? The majority of people cannot find the reason. For example, all people have arrogant dispositions—they are all particularly arrogant and self-righteous. The majority of people are capable of recognizing this, but can they avoid revealing their arrogance? This isn’t easy to achieve. Although they are able to compare themselves to God’s words when they read them, they acknowledge they have an arrogant disposition, and they have a path to practice, the difficult thing is that whenever they do something they frequently have their own preferences, intents, and goals, and they cannot see that these are all connected to their corrupt disposition. They need to learn to be discerning about these things, and must understand the truth, fix what should be fixed, and let go of what should be let go. That is, they should no longer do things for the sake of their intents, desires, pride, status, and interests. They should halt the course of their evildoing, and refrain from saying another sentence or performing another deed for their own interests. If you do this, you will already have gained a heart of repentance, and will have started to transform on your negative side. If you take even more initiative, and apart from not speaking for your own sake, you are also able to dissect yourself, letting the brothers and sisters see the manifestation of your arrogant disposition so they can learn from it, gain some lessons, benefit from it, and find a path of practice, that would be even better. What is the difficult thing? The difficult thing is to let go of all your intents, aims, ambitions, desires, and interests, to not do things for your own sake, and to not busy yourself or rush about for your own sake. Paul said he had finished his course. For whom was he running this course? (He ran it so he could be blessed and obtain a crown.) But Paul lacked this understanding. He likely still thought he was running the course for God and to complete God’s commission, certainly not for his own sake. That’s why he dared to show off and testify for himself in such a boastful and unabashed way. He was obviously defending and explaining himself. At the same time, this is also the best proof that he was testifying that for him to live was Christ. He was blatantly testifying for himself and resisting the truth; he was blaspheming the truth. There are many people now who revere Paul, whose hearts are filled with ambitions and desires, who all want to testify for themselves: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:7–8). By doing this, are they not giving free rein to their desires and ambitions, letting them continuously inflate, revealing them in every situation for them to be realized? If you cannot overcome your desires, then it is completely over for you; you will be unable to enter the truth realities. What is the crux of this issue? (We must rebel against our intents.) Rebelling against your intents is a negative way of practice. You must also be able to actively expose them, just like exposing other people. If you said something like, “I will tell you the truth about myself: I have very excessive ambitions, and I desire to win you over. Right now I am opening myself up to all of you. I am willing to rebel against the flesh; I will not be Satan’s accomplice. My aim in exposing myself this way is to let you see my true face clearly, so you will not revere me”—what effect would this way of practicing have? Everyone would certainly admire you. Wouldn’t this be much better than the reverence and high esteem you would get in exchange for using all sorts of base tactics? (Yes.) At least this is positive. Although everyone would have some admiration for you, would they look up to you? Perhaps some might, but you must find ways to make them abandon this behavior. Always expose yourself, saying, “I am also rebellious, and my rebelliousness is more severe than yours. I am also deceitful and wicked. When I spoke that time, I had an aim in mind, which was to make you look up to me and not look down on me.” After everyone hears this, not only will they not look down on you in their hearts, but they will respect you all the more. This is an aboveboard way of practicing. Only people who love the truth will do this; people who do not love the truth are incapable of doing this no matter what. If, in your heart, you think that doing this is really good and a great privilege, that it pleases God, and you aspire to act this way; if you have a strong desire in your heart, believing that you should do so and that this is the sort of person you should be—a person who is aboveboard, honest, and where no lie can be found in what they say, a person who thoroughly rebels against their corrupt disposition and Satan—only then will you be the sort of person who truly lives in the light. And if you are drawn toward and love being this sort of person, then you will be able to love the truth, enter the truth, and let go of those things which are of Satan. But if you are still interested in your intents, aims, ambitions, desires, and interests, and still have a lingering fondness for pursuing knowledge, fame, gain, and status, then these things still have a place in your heart. You say, “Let me take it easy until I have the appropriate stature, then we’ll see.” This is called indulging yourself, and being unable to completely rebel against yourself. By indulging yourself like this, your life entry is slowed, and not only have your issues of craving fleshly pleasures and craving the benefits of status not been resolved, but they have become increasingly stubborn. So, can the things in your heart that belong to Satan be thoroughly cleansed? Can your life experience still deepen, and your life continue to grow? Can you still achieve being perfected by God? You have already fallen into fleshly pleasures, and the benefits of status have bound you tight—can you still break free of them? You do not want to break free; slowly, you become someone who misleads people. That will be troublesome, and your sin will be severe. Why did things end the way they did for Paul? It is because he didn’t pursue the truth at all. He always pursued his ideals and yearnings, and wanted to control God’s chosen people so that they all followed him, and did as he did. He also wanted to use hard work and paying a price as leverage to make a deal with God, and obtain rewards and a crown. Ultimately, he was punished by God. If the path someone follows is exactly the same as Paul’s path, then they are beyond help and are completely finished. Anyone who is the same type of person as Paul is an antichrist who will not repent no matter what. If you only have some of the states Paul had, but the goal you pursue is slightly different than Paul’s, then you must immediately repent, and perhaps you will make it in time. If you do as Paul did, revere Paul, and are exactly the same as Paul, then not only are you a nonbeliever, but you want to be God and be Christ. Isn’t this wanting to be on equal footing with God? In your heart, you worship a vague God in heaven; you want to be on equal footing with Christ, and even treat your gifts and knowledge as life, and treat improper pursuits as proper ones. The goals you pursue, and the manner of your pursuit are getting closer and closer to what Paul’s were, and match Paul’s pursuits more and more perfectly. This spells trouble for you; you are completely hopeless, and you cannot be saved. You must do as Peter did and follow the path of pursuing the truth, thoroughly rebel against the flesh, and rebel against those things which are of Satan, and only then will you have hope of being saved. Do you have a path to receiving salvation now? (Constantly exposing ourselves and letting go of ourselves.) First, you must let go of your personal intents, aims, ambitions, and desires. Regardless of whether you pursue actively, or you pursue in a negative and passive way, you must let go of these things and learn to submit. This is of the utmost importance. If you decide to act in a certain way when something befalls you, you must first evaluate what you are acting this way for. If it is for pride and status, then stop right there, and slow the steps you are taking toward action. You must pray: “God, I am not willing to do this. I want to rebel against it, but I lack the strength. Please grant me the strength, protect me, and stop my evildoing in its tracks.” Then, without realizing it, you will have the strength. Sometimes people’s ability to overcome sin, rebel against the flesh, and rebel against their corrupt disposition comes from their wish and will, and their aspiration to love the truth. At times, it requires God’s work, and requires relying on God—people cannot leave God. Sometimes you understand the truth, you have a path to follow, and you think you can live independently, but when you are faced with new circumstances, you don’t know how to practice—you must pray to God and rely on Him. People’s lives are full of ups and downs. It can be said that people can never be without God. No matter how many truths they understand, they cannot leave Him. No matter how many moments of negativity they have, or how many moments of passivity, they ultimately cannot leave God’s leadership and guidance. The more times you submit to God, the more your truth realities will increase. As your truth realities increase, this implies that your life entry becomes deeper and deeper. As your life entry becomes deeper, this means that your disposition is changing more and more. When your disposition has transformed a lot, it means you have gained stature. Your stature is representative of your life entry. When you have stature, you can overcome the control and bondage that your corrupt disposition has over you, your ability to overcome sin will grow stronger, and your heart will have strength. You will not just have an affective wish, hope, and aspiration; you will not linger at this level. Rather, you will ascend, and grow into an adult, becoming someone who has the truth and humanity. This is the path of pursuing the truth, and it is also the result of pursuing the truth. Can you see the direction? Can you see hope? (Yes.) That is a good thing.

Life entry is a process that never ends. You must experience a lifetime in order to gain from it and undergo change. Even if you walk the path of pursuing the truth, if you still crave fleshly pleasures and the benefits of status, you will stumble and fail all the same. Now your path is correct, and you have found your direction. You’ve already clearly discerned those things that are incorrect, passive, contrary, and negative. There is a boundary between you and these things. As far as positive things, you have also understood and gained quite a lot from them, and can already comprehend and accept quite a lot of them. What remains after gaining discernment over these wrong, wicked, and negative things and actions, is to thoroughly banish these things from your heart, thoroughly abandon them and rebel against them, and then practice according to the principles of the truth. This way, you will have life entry. Life entry is actually not hard; it just depends on whether you truly love the truth. If you truly love the truth, these negative things will not be able to defeat you. You may be passive and weak for a time, but will still be able to continue moving forward. If you do not love the truth, or you do not love the truth that strongly, just focusing on outward formalities, expending a little of yourself and giving a bit of yourself, being able to rise early and sleep late to perform your duty; if you just linger at the stage of laboring, not wanting to attain an understanding of the truth or enter reality, merely content to expend yourself for God and commit no more major transgressions, and you stagnate and do not move forward, what will the consequences of all this be? You absolutely will not receive God’s approval. If you want your pursuit of the truth to be successful, and truly want to gain life, it is no simple matter. You must let go of your own interests and abandon all improper pursuits, like pursuing fame, gain, and status, pursuing blessings, or pursuing a crown or rewards. All of these must be let go of. If you truly love the truth and enjoy pondering God’s words, then life entry will not be a difficult matter for you. So long as you understand the truth, you naturally will have a path, and will not have much difficulty.

June 21, 2018