Only by Pursuing the Truth Can One Resolve Their Notions and Misunderstandings of God (Part One)
People don’t understand the truth when they first begin to believe in God, and have many notions and imaginings about Him. When you’ve believed in God for several years, read so many of His words and listened to so many sermons, just how many of these notions and imaginings have been resolved? Even after believing in God for several years, some people still have notions about God’s judgment, chastisement, and pruning, while others can have notions when they see the severity of God’s words. Can these things be solved by seeking the truth? If you can seek the truth in everything, and use it to solve any problems you encounter, then you are someone who pursues the truth. Are you able to seek the truth to solve problems now? When you encounter anything that gives rise to notions, or when you transgress, how do you seek the truth to solve it? Who can talk about their experience of this sort of thing? (When I was a leader I didn’t do any practical work, just tasks that made me look good, and I always fought for prestige and status. This disrupted and disturbed the church’s work, and when I faced being pruned, I still tried to justify myself and didn’t have true reflection and knowledge, or repentance and change. Later the church displaced me, but my heart was still defiant and dissatisfied, and I always complained and vented negativity. Leaders pruned me for not accepting the truth at all and resisting God, which is something that offends His disposition, and told me that if I still did not repent then I’d be cleared out and eliminated. I didn’t understand the truth at that time, and seriously misunderstood God. Although I never said I didn’t believe in God, I thought that as I had offended Him, He definitely wouldn’t save me, so I’d just labor. After that, I didn’t pay that much attention to pursuing the truth, and it wasn’t until I heard God’s fellowship one day that I eventually turned around.) After you turned around, did you have a correct path of practice? What would you do if the same thing happened again? (Right now, I don’t have a path of practice for this aspect.) Actually, all these problems can be solved with the truth. If people want to resolve their misunderstandings about God, then, in one respect, they must recognize their own corrupt dispositions and dissect and understand their previous mistakes, wrong paths, transgressions, and negligence. In this way they’ll be able to understand and see their own nature clearly. Additionally, they must see clearly why people go astray and do so many things that violate the truth principles, and the nature of these actions. Furthermore, they must understand what precisely God’s intentions and requirements are for mankind, why people are always incapable of acting according to God’s requirements, and why they always go against His intentions and do what they like. Bring these things before God and pray, understand them clearly, and you can then turn your state around, change your mindset, and resolve your misunderstanding of God. Some people always harbor improper intentions no matter what they do, always have evil ideas, and cannot examine whether their inner state is right or not, nor discern it according to God’s words. These people are muddled. One of the clearest characteristics of a muddled person is that after they do something bad, they stay negative when faced with being pruned, even giving themselves up to despair and determining that they’re finished and cannot be saved. Isn’t this the most pitiful behavior of a muddled person? They can’t reflect on themselves according to God’s word, and can’t seek the truth to solve the problem when faced with difficulties. Is this not being very muddled? Can giving yourself up to despair solve problems? Can always struggling in negativity solve problems? People should understand that if they make a mistake or have a problem then they should seek the truth to solve it. They need to first reflect and understand why they committed evil, what their intention and starting point in doing so was, why they wanted to do it and what their goal was, and whether someone encouraged, incited, or misled them to do it or if they did it consciously. These questions must be reflected on and understood clearly, and then they’ll be able to know what mistakes they made and what they themselves are. If you can’t recognize the essence of your evildoing or learn a lesson from it, then the problem cannot be solved. Many people do bad things and never reflect on themselves, so can such people ever truly repent? Is there any hope for their salvation? Mankind is the progeny of Satan, and regardless of whether or not they have offended God’s disposition, their nature essence is the same. They should reflect on themselves and come to know themselves more, see clearly to what extent they’ve rebelled against and resisted God, and whether they can still accept and practice the truth. If they see this clearly, they’ll know how much danger they are in. In fact, based on their nature essences, all corrupt humans are in danger; it requires a lot of effort for them to accept the truth and it is not easy for them. Some people have committed evil and revealed their nature essence, while some have not yet committed evil but aren’t necessarily much better than others—they just haven’t had the situation or opportunity to do so. Since you have these transgressions, you must be clear in your heart about what attitude you should have now, what you should account for before God, and what He wants to see. You must clarify these things through prayer and seeking; then you’ll know how you should pursue in the future, and will no longer be influenced or constrained by the mistakes you made in the past. You must walk the path ahead and perform your duty as you should, and no longer give yourself up to despair; you must emerge totally from negativity and misunderstanding. In one respect, it’s negative and not very advisable if you perform your duty now to make up for your past transgressions and mistakes, but this is the mindset you should have at the very least. In another respect, you have to positively and proactively cooperate, do your utmost to perform well the duty you ought to perform, and to fulfill your responsibilities and obligations. This is what a created being should do. No matter what notions you have about God, or if you reveal corruption or have offended His disposition, this must all be solved by reflecting on yourself and seeking the truth. Learn from your failures, and emerge completely from the shadow of negativity. Once you understand the truth and are freed, no longer constrained by any person, event, or thing, then you will have the confidence to walk the path ahead. After you have made some gains and some life progress, and no longer have any notions about God, you will gradually enter the right track of belief in God.
Someone may have transgressed in the past, or gone astray, but they aren’t actually some greatly treacherous or evil person, it’s just that they were too arrogant, so arrogant that they became unreasonable, lost restraint, and couldn’t control themselves, and did things which God loathes and despises, and which even disgusts themselves. But having followed until now they must have made some progress. When it comes to whether they can ultimately remain, God will determine this based on their current behavior, as well as their current attitude toward Him and toward their duty. Someone might say: “I’ve committed serious transgressions in the past, but afterward I came to understand the truth. I really regret my transgressions, but I can’t take them back, even if I put the truth into practice now. I always feel like I’m tainted, and my heart is not clear whether God wants me or not.” This is you passing a verdict on yourself, not God; your verdict doesn’t represent God’s, nor does your attitude represent His. You must understand what God’s attitude is, and what His bottom line is toward every corrupt human and those who can be saved. Are you clear on this? What God looks at is a person’s attitude, determination, and resolve in pursuing the truth. He doesn’t care about who you were before, what your transgressions were, or how much you’ve expended, offered, or suffered. God doesn’t look at these things. Someone may say that they believe in God and have been incarcerated eight times, and God says: “I don’t look at these things about you. I just look at how you behave now, whether you’re someone who pursues the truth, whether you bore witness while in prison, what things you’ve gained, whether you know God, and whether you’ve entered the truth realities.” This is the result God wants. Some people say: “I have transgressed and gone astray, but now I recognize this, and through deep reflection, I have become willing to repent, and firmly resolve to perform my duty well, to not be perfunctory, and to do my best, so that I may satisfy God, repay His love, and make up for my past mistakes. I want to pursue and practice the truth in the course of performing my duty. I will not just exert myself or labor, I will try to put the truth into practice, live out human likeness, and honor God by performing my duty well.” With this attitude, will God still look at your transgressions? He won’t. You must, therefore, be sure of this in your heart, so you won’t be constrained by past transgressions anymore. Some people are always constrained by past transgressions, and think, “God cannot possibly forgive anything that offends His disposition. His heart has long since spurned me, and it’s useless for me to pursue the truth.” What sort of attitude is this? This is called being suspicious of and misunderstanding God. In fact, before you even did anything that offended God’s disposition, you had a disrespectful, irreverent, and perfunctory attitude toward Him, and you didn’t treat God as God. People reveal their satanic dispositions because of a moment of ignorance or impulsivity, and if there is no one to discipline or stop them, they commit transgressions. After their transgressions lead to consequences, they don’t know to repent and yet are ill at ease. They worry about their future outcome and destination, and carry all these things in their hearts, always thinking, “I’m finished and ruined, so I’m just going to write myself off as hopeless. If God one day doesn’t want and thoroughly loathes me, the worst thing that can happen is I’ll die. I put myself at the mercy of God’s orchestration.” On the surface they talk about putting themselves at the mercy of God’s orchestration and submitting to His arrangements and sovereignty, but what is their actual state? It is resistant, intransigent, unrepentant. What does it mean to be unrepentant? It means they stick to their own ideas, not believing or accepting anything God says, always thinking, “God’s words of exhortation and comfort are not meant for me, but for other people. As for me, I’m finished, I’m already written off, I’m worthless—God has long since given up on me, and no matter how I confess my sins, pray, or weep in remorse, He will never give me another chance.” What attitude is this, when they measure and second-guess God in their hearts? Is it an attitude of confession and repentance? Obviously not. This kind of attitude represents a type of disposition—intransigence, incredible intransigence. Outwardly they appear particularly self-righteous, not listening to anyone, understanding every doctrine but not practicing anything. In fact, they have an intransigent disposition. From God’s perspective, is intransigence submission or rebelliousness? It is clearly rebelliousness. They, however, feel they’ve been greatly wronged, “I used to love God so much, but He cannot let go of one little mistake I’ve made, and now my outcome is lost. God has passed a verdict on people like me. I am Paul.” Did God say you were Paul? God didn’t say so. You say you are Paul—where does this come from? You say you’ll be struck down by God, punished, and sent to hell. Who decided on this outcome? You clearly decided it yourself, as God has never said that you’ll be sent to hell when His work is completed, and that you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. So long as God doesn’t say that He spurns you, then you have the chance and the right to pursue the truth, and you should just accept the judgment and chastisement of God’s words. You must have this kind of attitude, as this is the attitude of accepting the truth and God’s salvation, and of true repentance. You always cling to your own notions, imaginings, and misunderstandings; you are already filled with and occupied by these things, and have even decided that God won’t save you, and then harbored a perfunctory mindset in the course of performing your duty, a mindset of writing yourself off as hopeless, a negative and passive mindset, a mindset of living day by day, a lazy mindset. Can you gain the truth? You will not be able to gain the truth with this mentality, and you will not be saved. Is such a person not pitiable? (Yes, they are.) What caused them to be so pitiable? It’s because of ignorance. When things happen, they don’t seek the truth but always study and speculate, and even want to dig into God’s words to see which were spoken about their situation, what God’s attitude is, how He passes verdicts, and what their outcome will be—and through this determine what the result of the matter will be. Is this approach seeking the truth? Certainly not. They hang God’s words of condemnation and curse above their own head, living in negativity—which appears to be fragility, feebleness, and negativity, but is actually a kind of resistance. What is the disposition behind resistance? It is intransigence. In God’s eyes, this kind of intransigence is a type of rebelliousness, and is what He detests the most. If God didn’t want to save you, why would He tell you so many truths, give you so many paths of practice, or exhort you with such sincere words? Yet you still say God won’t save you. What is the basis for this? God’s heart always hopes that people repent, but it’s people who don’t even give themselves a chance. What is the issue here? It’s that human nature is too deceitful. People do not believe in God or His words, and this is the attitude with which they treat Him. Someone might say: “God is faithful, and within His words is judgment, exposure, condemnation, curses, mercy, and forgiveness. I know these words all represent God’s disposition, but I don’t know which are aimed at my situation. I always feel that God’s words of condemnation and curses are meant for me, while His words of blessing and approval are meant for those who pursue the truth. I’m finished, in any case.” They have this kind of presumptuous attitude from beginning to end, and use this as an excuse to say that God won’t save them. They’ll think, “Since You won’t save me, God, then I might as well be perfunctory in performing my duty. If You won’t give me any reward, why should I work so hard?” Their mindset changes, and becomes unreasonable. They don’t accept the truth, but bring their own intentions, negative state, and human imaginings, speculation, and excuses to oppose and contend with God. They live in negativity, not interested in seeking the truth or fellowshipping on it, and indifferent to putting it into practice or being an honest person. They adopt an evasive attitude toward it, and even now have not awakened, but still live in a negative state. God says that these sorts of people are the most pitiful. From beginning to end it is always people who contend with God, people who speculate about and misunderstand Him, and torment themselves into negativity through their human notions and imaginings. They become estranged from God, yet still want to exploit Him and make a deal with Him, without turning around even the slightest. Is this not self-inflicted? It is just like those lyrics say, they are “starving themselves at a great feast.” This is most pitiful. God bestows an abundance on man, yet man still goes begging with a broken bowl. Is this not a beggar who deserves to suffer?
From the beginning, I have often exhorted you that each of you must pursue the truth. So long as there is a chance to do so, do not give up; pursuing the truth is the obligation, responsibility, and duty of each person, and the path that each person should walk, as well as the path all who would be saved must walk. Yet no one heeds this—no one thinks it a matter of import, believing it to be mere cant, each person thinking what they will. From the beginning unto today, though there have been many who clutch books of God’s words in their hands and read them, who listen to sermons, who all seem to have accepted God’s judgment and chastisement and His guidance in the course of performing their duties, a relationship between man and God has not, in fact, been established, and all people live by their imaginings, notions, misunderstandings, and speculations, such that they live each day in doubt and negativity in how they treat God’s words and work, as well as His guidance. If you live in such states, how can you cast off negativity? How can you cast off rebelliousness? How can you cast off the mindset and attitude of deceit and wickedness or speculation and misunderstanding with which you approach the commission and duty that God has given you? Certainly, they cannot be cast off. Therefore, if you wish to embark on a path of pursuing and practicing the truth and entering the truth reality, you must come at once before God, pray to Him, and seek His intentions—and figuring out His desires is what matters most. It’s too impractical to always live in notions and imaginings; you should learn to reflect on yourself in all matters, and to recognize which corrupt dispositions you still have that need to be cleansed, which things are preventing you from putting the truth into practice, what misunderstandings or notions you have about God, and which things He does that don’t accord with your notions, but cause you to doubt and misunderstand. If you reflect on yourself in this way, you can discover which problems you still have that need to be solved by seeking the truth, and if you practice like this then your life will grow quickly. If you don’t reflect on yourself but always harbor notions and misunderstandings in your heart about God, always insist on your own ideas, always think that God lets you down or isn’t fair to you, and always hold onto your own reasoning, then your misunderstanding of God will only get deeper and your relationship with Him more and more distant, while your heart’s rebelliousness and opposition to Him grow greater and greater. It’s dangerous if your state gets this bad, as it will already seriously affect how effectively you perform your duty. You can only treat your duty and responsibility with a slipshod, perfunctory, irreverent, rebellious, and resistant attitude, and what is the end result? It will lead you to be perfunctory in doing your duty, deceptive and resistant to God. You won’t be able to gain the truth, nor enter the truth realities. What is the root cause of this result? It is because people still have notions and misunderstandings about God in their hearts, and these practical problems have not been solved. So, there will always be a gulf between people and God. Therefore, if people want to come before God, they must first reflect on what misunderstandings, notions, imaginings, doubts, or speculations they have about Him. These things must all be examined. Truly having notions or misunderstandings about God is not a simple matter, as it touches upon people’s attitude to God as well as their nature essence. If people don’t seek the truth to solve these notions and misunderstandings, it’s not like these things will just vanish into thin air. Even if they don’t affect you performing your duty or pursuing the truth, when something happens or under special circumstances they will still appear to disturb your mind and your performance of your duty. Therefore, if you have notions and misunderstandings, then you must come before God and reflect on yourself, seek the truth, and understand clearly the root cause and essence of why these notions and misunderstandings arise in people. Only then can they disappear, your relationship with God can be normal, and your life can gradually grow. That people have too many notions and misunderstandings about God proves that mankind resists and is incompatible with Him. Only by continuously resolving these notions and misunderstandings can the gulf between people and God gradually close. They will be able to submit to God, and have greater faith in Him; with greater faith, their practice of the truth will be much less adulterated, and there will be much fewer adulterations and obstacles in their pursuit of the truth.
Which people are less adulterated when performing their duties, and scheme less on their own behalf? (Simpler people, those who don’t misunderstand God.) This is one type, but there’re also honest people, kind-hearted people, those who pursue the truth more—these people are less adulterated when performing their duties. Those who have misunderstandings or imaginings about God, or who have extravagant desires or demands of Him, are highly adulterated when performing their duties. They want prestige, status, and rewards, and if some big reward is still far away, and out of sight, they’ll ponder, “Since I can’t get it immediately, I’ll just have to wait and endure. But I should first get a little bit of benefits now, or at the very least some status. I’ll first strive to be a leader in the church, to be responsible for dozens of people. It’s quite glamorous to always have people circling around you.” And so this adulteration in their belief in God appears. When you haven’t performed any duty, or done anything practical for God’s house, you’ll feel that you aren’t qualified, and these things won’t arise in you. But when you are capable of doing something, and feel that you’re a bit superior to most people, and that you can preach some doctrines, then these things will arise. For example, when a leader is being elected, if you’ve only believed in God for one or two years, you’ll feel that your stature is small, that you’re unable to preach any sermons, and that you aren’t qualified, so you’ll step back during the election. After three or five years of belief, you’ll be able to preach a few spiritual doctrines, so when the time comes to elect a leader again, you’ll proactively reach for that position and pray, “Oh God! I bear a burden, I’m willing to be a leader in the church, and willing to be considerate of Your intentions. But regardless of whether I am elected or not, I am always willing to submit to Your arrangements.” You’ll say that you’re willing to submit, but in your heart, you’ll think, “But it would be great if You’d let me have a go at being a leader!” If you have such a demand, will God satisfy it? Certainly not, because this demand of yours is not a legitimate request, but an extravagant desire. Even if you say that you want to become a leader so that you can show consideration for God’s burden, using this excuse as your justification, and feeling that this is in line with the truth, what will you think when God doesn’t satisfy your demand? What manifestations will you display? (I’ll misunderstand God, and wonder why He didn’t satisfy me when I just wanted to show consideration for His burden. I’ll become negative, resistant, and I’ll complain.) You’ll become negative, and think, “The person they elected hasn’t believed in God for as long as I have, they’re not as well-educated as I am, and their caliber is worse than mine. I can also preach sermons, so in what way are they better than me?” You’ll ponder and ponder, but you won’t be able to figure it out, so notions will arise in you, and you’ll judge God as being unrighteous. Is this not a corrupt disposition? Will you still be able to submit? No. If you didn’t have this desire to be a leader, if you could pursue the truth, and if you possessed self-knowledge, you’d say, “I’m fine with just being an ordinary follower. I don’t possess the truth reality, I am of average humanity, and I’m not very eloquent. I have a bit of experience but I can’t really speak about it. I want to speak more about it but I can’t explain myself clearly. If I do speak more, it’s likely that people will feel fed up with listening to me. I fall too far short of this position. I’m not suited to being a leader, and should just keep learning from others, perform my duty to the best of my ability, and pursue the truth with my feet on the ground. One day, when I have stature and am fit to lead, I won’t refuse if elected by my brothers and sisters.” This is the correct state of mind. If one day your brothers and sisters view you as suited to being a leader and elect you, this will definitely be because God permitted it, so would you lead or not? (Yes, I would, I would submit.) How would you submit? Say that you think, “I reckon I can do it. No one else is better than me, so I can definitely do it. This is God moving my brothers and sisters to elect me. Of these people, I have believed in God the longest, I’m the right age, I have some experience in society and I’m a capable worker, I’m eloquent and educated, I’ve performed all different kinds of duties and have some experience. I’m suitable in all respects. If my brothers and sisters were under my leadership, then the church life would definitely flourish and keep improving.” Then arrogance arises in you. Is there any reason in this? What will you do next? You will do evil and bad things, and then you must be pruned, and face judgment and chastisement. Is someone’s state of mind important? (Yes, it is.) No matter what you do, you must reflect on and come to understand your motives, your point of origin, your intentions, your aims, and all your thoughts, according to the truth, and determine whether they are right or wrong. These things all must have God’s words as their foundation and base, so that you don’t go down the wrong path. No matter what you want to do, or what you seek, pray, or ask for before God, it must be legitimate and reasonable, it must be something that can be put on the table and approved of by everyone. There’s no point in seeking and praying for things that can’t be brought out into the open. No matter how much you pray for those things, it will be of no use.
People are always adulterated while performing their duties; they are always adulterated with their own intentions and preferences. So, do people deliberately allow themselves to be adulterated? No, this is involuntary. The number of adulterations a person has depends on their dispositions and their pursuit. If a person pursues the truth, they will have less intentions, selfish motives, desires, and negative states when performing their duty. If they do not pursue the truth, they will have more adulterations, and they’ll be likely to become negative when faced with failure or setbacks, sometimes even being tripped up by a single sentence. You always talk about “feeling tormented by pride, status, and affection”—you feel tormented by everything, all day. This is irrational. People are often dominated by their satanic nature, they live under the control of their satanic dispositions, and have all kinds of extravagant desires, but do not seek the truth to resolve them. Regardless of what kind of corruption they reveal, they always feel negative and tormented. If you feel tormented, then you are in trouble; whenever feeling tormented is mentioned, it’s never a good thing. Why? The word “tormented” itself isn’t even justified—people only feel tormented under special circumstances, and it’s not a manifestation that those who pursue the truth often display. There’s something wrong with always feeling tormented, there’s a problem with people like that—it’s a state of negativity and resistance. Moreover, it’s incorrect and inappropriate to use the word “tormented” in this way. Why don’t people who feel tormented all the time ever get results from it in the end? It’s because they don’t seek the truth, but are instead always negative and resistant, opposing God. The result of this is that they suffer a lot but gain nothing at all. People who love the truth will always submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement, no matter what difficulties or problems they encounter. They’ll accept God’s orchestrations, come before Him to seek the truth, and walk the path of pursuing the truth. Don’t feel tormented for no good reason, as it won’t get you anywhere. For example, you feel tormented by affection, but are you ever able to extricate yourself from it? You feel tormented by status, but do you have true insight into status? You feel tormented by your future and destiny, but are you able to free yourself from the constraints of your future and destiny? Can you let go of your desire for blessings? (No, I cannot.) So, how can you solve these problems? They must all be solved by pursuing the truth. Pursuing the truth can solve people’s unreasonable demands and extravagant desires, as well as their misunderstandings of God and their imaginings, speculations, doubts, and determinations about Him. Will people still feel tormented when all of these states are resolved? Won’t all these states of feeling tormented just disappear? At that time, what will your thoughts, views, attitude, and state be like? You’ll be able to submit and wait, and you won’t fight against God’s sovereignty and arrangement, nor rebel against Him or judge Him. Moreover, when God’s hand falls upon you, or He orchestrates an environment for you, you’ll be able to actively cooperate and submit before Him instead of resisting or evading, and even less will you try to escape it. You’ll have more and more of these positive states, and this proves that you’re pursuing the truth. However, if those negative things constantly occupy your mind and influence your daily actions, thoughts, and ideas, and affect your state, then this proves that you don’t pursue the truth at all, and you will eventually be eliminated.
When many people perform their duties, they are always adulterated with their intentions, they always try to distinguish themselves, they always like to be praised and encouraged, and if they do something well, they always want some payoff or reward; if there is no reward, they are indifferent to performing their duties, and if there is no one to pay attention to them or encourage them, they become negative. They are as unstable as children. What is going on here—why are people always adulterated with their intentions in their duties and never able to put them aside? This is chiefly because they do not accept the truth; as a result, no matter how you fellowship the truth with them, they are incapable of putting these things aside. If these issues are never resolved, then as time goes on, they easily become negative, and increasingly indifferent toward performing their duties. Seeing words from God about being approved of or blessed, they are a little motivated, and become a little enthusiastic; but if no one fellowships the truth with them, if no one motivates or praises them, they grow indifferent. If people frequently laud, compliment, and praise them, they feel that they are particularly wonderful, and in their hearts, they are sure that God is protecting and blessing them. At such times their desires to stand out above the masses are achieved and fulfilled, their intent to be blessed is temporarily assuaged, and use has been made of their skills and talents, which gives them face. They are so happy they skip along the street, their faces beaming. Is this the effect of pursuing the truth? (No.) This is simply their desires being fulfilled. What disposition is this? This is an arrogant disposition. They don’t have the slightest self-awareness, but have extravagant desires. Faced with some adversity or difficulty, or if their pride and vanity are not fulfilled, or if their interests are even the slightest bit compromised, they become negative and fall down. Before, they stood as tall as a giant, but in just a few days they have crumbled into a pile of dust—the difference is so huge. If they are people who pursue the truth, how could they topple so quickly? Clearly, people who perform their duties based on zealousness, desires, and ambition are very weak; when they encounter some setback or failure, they fall down. Seeing their imaginings come to nothing, their desires are unfulfilled, and they have no hope of being blessed, they immediately fall. What this shows is that regardless of how enthusiastic they were about their duties at the time, this was not because they understood the truth. They were performing their duties with the desire of being blessed, and because of zealousness. No matter how zealous people are, or how many words and doctrines they are able to preach, if they are incapable of practicing the truth, if they cannot perform their duties according to the principles, if they only rely on zealousness, they won’t be able to last for long, and when faced with tribulation or disaster, they will not be able to stand firm, and will fall. Some people just collapse when faced with failure or setbacks, others collapse when being pruned, while others collapse when faced with being disciplined. Those who do not possess the truth always fall at the first hurdle in this way. So, what are the manifestations of someone who pursues the truth? (No matter what kind of refinement they face, although they might be in great pain, they won’t become negative. They’ll seek the truth and submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement.) Not becoming negative is one manifestation, but you haven’t seen through to the main manifestation, which is that people who pursue the truth are not hindered or affected in the performance of their duties, no matter what difficulties, pain, or weakness they experience. Those who don’t pursue the truth are enthusiastic in performing their duties when they’re happy; no matter how much they suffer, they don’t feel exhausted, and they are able to set aside all personal matters, and not abandon their duties. But it’s different when they’re unhappy. They feel too tired when doing even a little bit of work, and if they suffer a little, they complain, and always think about going home to live out their days and get rich, and about a way out for themselves. But those who pursue the truth think, “No matter how much I suffer, I must perform my duty well and repay God’s love. Only by performing my duty well will I have conscience and reason, and be worthy of being called human.” Apart from focusing on performing their duties well, they’re able to eat and drink God’s words and fellowship on the truth with their brothers and sisters no matter what troubles they face, and they seek the truth to solve their difficulties. They ponder on these things over and over again: “How can I resolve this state? Where does the problem lie? Why do I feel negative? Why am I being pruned? How did I do this wrong? Where was my mistake? Is this a dispositional problem, am I not proficient in this field, or do I harbor some of my own intentions?” They get results after examining these things for a few days, and they realize that the church’s work has suffered because they harbored their own intentions, feared offending others, and didn’t consider the interests of God’s house. What attitude should you adopt after coming to this kind of conclusion? How should you solve this problem? You must accept the judgment, chastisement, and pruning of God’s words, reflect on yourself within His words, hold your state against His words for comparison, and achieve an understanding of your own corrupt dispositions. In this way you’ll know whether or not you’re someone who loves the truth and submits to God. Is arriving at this conclusion enough? You’ll still have to confess and repent before God, saying, “What I did was not in accordance with the truth, my actions were dictated by my satanic disposition. I am willing to repent, and I will never rebel against God again. No matter what happens, I will always seek the truth and act according to God’s requirements. If I cannot, may God discipline and punish me.” This is a truly repentant heart. If you can pray and make a firm resolution in this way, and if you can practice like this, then this is a submissive mindset. If you experience in this way, you will gradually come to submit to God’s work, have a true understanding of Him, see that His disposition is truly righteous and holy, and develop a God-fearing heart. You will be responsible and loyal in performing your duty, and in this way, you will have some practical experience, and you will have entered the truth realities.
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