Some people follow their own will when they act. They violate the principles, and after being pruned, they admit in mere words that they are arrogant, and that they made a mistake only because they do not have the truth. But in their hearts, they complain, “No one else sticks their neck out, just me—and in the end, when something goes wrong, they push all the responsibility onto me. Isn’t this stupid of me? I can’t do the same thing next time, sticking my neck out like that. The bird that sticks its neck out is the one that gets shot!” What do you think of this attitude? Is it an attitude of repentance? (No.) What attitude is it? Haven’t they become slippery and deceitful? In their hearts they think, “I’m lucky this time it didn’t turn into a disaster. A fall in the pit, a gain in your wit, so to speak. I have to be more careful in the future.” They do not seek the truth, using their petty tricks and cunning schemes to attend to and handle the matter. Can they gain the truth in this way? They cannot, because they have not repented. The first thing to be done when repenting is to recognize what you have done wrong: to see where your mistake was, the essence of the problem, and the corrupt disposition you have revealed; you must reflect on these things and accept the truth, then practice according to the truth. Only this is an attitude of repentance. If, on the other hand, you consider cunning ways exhaustively, you become more slippery than before, your techniques are cleverer and more concealed, and you have more methods to deal with things, then the problem is not quite as simple as just being deceitful. You are using underhanded means and you have secrets you cannot divulge. This is wickedness. Not only have you not repented, but you have become more slippery and deceitful. God sees that you are overly intransigent and wicked, that you admit on the surface you were wrong, and accept being pruned, yet in reality, you do not have a repentant attitude in the slightest. Why do I say this? Because while this event was happening or in its aftermath, you did not seek the truth at all, you did not reflect and try to know yourself, and you did not practice according to the truth. Your attitude is one of using Satan’s philosophies, logic, and methods to resolve the problem. In reality, you are sidestepping the problem, and wrapping it up in a neat package so others see no trace of it, letting nothing slip. In the end, you feel you are quite smart. These are the things God sees, rather than your having truly reflected, confessed, and repented of your sin in the face of the matter that has befallen you, then going on to seek the truth and practicing according to the truth. Your attitude is not one of seeking the truth or of practicing the truth, nor is it one of submission to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, but one of using Satan’s techniques and methods to resolve your problem. You give others a false impression and resist being revealed by God, and you are defensive and confrontational regarding the circumstances that God has orchestrated for you. Your heart is more closed than before and separated from God. As such, can any good result come from it? Can you still live in the light, enjoying peace and joy? You cannot. If you shun the truth and shun God, you will certainly fall into the darkness and weep and gnash your teeth. Is such a state prevalent in people? (Yes.) Some people frequently admonish themselves, saying, “I was pruned this time. Next time, I’ve got to be more calculating and more careful. I have to be on my guard in all matters so that I don’t end up losing out; people who aren’t calculating are dummies.” If you are always guiding and admonishing yourself so, will you ever be able to get good results? Will you be able to gain the truth? If an issue befalls you, you must seek and understand an aspect of the truth, and gain that aspect of the truth. What can be achieved by understanding the truth? When you understand an aspect of the truth, you understand an aspect of God’s intentions; you understand why God did this thing to you, why He would make such a demand of you, why He would orchestrate circumstances to chasten and discipline you so, why He would use this matter to prune you, and why you have fallen down, failed, and been revealed in this matter. If you understand these things, you will be able to pursue the truth and will achieve life entry. If you do not understand these things and do not accept these facts, but insist on opposing and resisting them, on using your own techniques to disguise yourself, and on facing all others and God with a false countenance, then you will be forever unable to gain the truth. If you have an honest attitude, one of accepting and submitting to the truth, and no matter what happens, no matter how much pain there is in your heart, or how humiliated you are, you’re always able to accept and submit to the truth, and you’re still able to pray to God, saying, “Everything God does is right, and I must accept it,” then this is a submissive attitude. However, during the process of acceptance you must continuously reflect on yourself, reflect on where the errors lie in your actions and behavior, and which aspects of the truth you have violated. You must also dissect your own intentions, so you can clearly see your own true state and stature. If you then seek the truth, you’ll know how to practice the truth in accordance with the principles. If you practice and experience in this way, then you’ll make progress before you know it. The truth will take root inside you; it’ll blossom, bear fruit, and become your life. All of the problems of your revelations of corruption will gradually be solved. When things happen, your attitude, views, and states will tend more and more toward the positive. Will you still be estranged from God then? Perhaps you will still be estranged from Him, but less and less so, and the doubts, speculations, misunderstandings, complaints, rebelliousness, and resistance you harbor toward God will also diminish. When they diminish, it’ll be easier for you to quiet yourself before God when things happen, and to pray to Him, seek the truth, and seek a path of practice. If you can’t see through things when they befall you, if you are instead utterly confused, and still don’t seek the truth, then there will be trouble. You’re sure to handle matters using human solutions, and your philosophies for worldly dealings, slippery methods, and clever techniques will all come out. This is how people first react to things in their hearts. Some people never put their hearts into striving toward the truth when things happen, and instead always think about handling those things by human means. As a result, they flounder around for a long time, they torment themselves until their faces become wan with exhaustion, but they still do not put the truth into practice. This is how pitiful those who do not pursue the truth are. Though you may now perform your duty willingly, and you may forsake things and expend yourself willingly, if you still have misunderstandings, speculations, doubts, or complaints regarding God, or even rebelliousness and resistance against Him, or if you use various methods and techniques to oppose Him and reject His sovereignty over you—if you do not resolve these things—then it will be nigh impossible for the truth to be master of your person, and your life will be exhausting. People often struggle and are tormented in these negative states, as if they had sunk into a quagmire, and they are always preoccupied with the idea of right and wrong. How can they discover and understand the truth? To seek the truth, one must first submit. Then, after a period of experience, they will be able to gain some enlightenment, at which point it is easy to understand the truth. If one is always trying to work out what is right and wrong and gets caught up in what is true and false, they have no way to discover or understand the truth. And what will come of it if one can never understand the truth? Not understanding the truth gives rise to notions and misunderstandings about God; when one has misunderstandings about God, they are likely to complain about Him. When these complaints burst forth, they become opposition; opposition to God is resistance against Him, and a serious transgression. If one has committed many transgressions, then they have committed manifold evils, and should be punished. This is the sort of thing that comes of being forever unable to understand the truth. So, the pursuit of truth is not merely meant to have you perform your duty well, to be obedient, to behave by the rules, to appear devout, or to have saintly decorum. It is not merely meant to achieve these things; principally it is meant to resolve the various incorrect views you harbor toward God. The purpose of understanding the truth is to resolve people’s corrupt dispositions; when those corrupt dispositions are resolved, people will no longer have misunderstandings about God. These two things are linked. At the same time as people resolve their corrupt dispositions, the relationship between them and God will gradually improve and become increasingly normal. Once their corrupt dispositions are resolved, therefore, people’s misgivings, suspicions, testing, misunderstandings, questions, and grievances regarding God, and even their resistance, will all be resolved, bit by bit. What immediate manifestation occurs when a person’s corrupt dispositions are resolved? Their attitude toward God changes. They can face everything with a heart of submission to God, and then their relationship with Him will improve. If they understand the truth then they will be able to put it into practice. They have a heart of submission to God so they won’t be perfunctory in the performance of their duty, let alone will they deceive God. In this way, they will have fewer and fewer notions and misunderstandings about God, their relationship with Him will become more and more normal, and they’ll be able to fully submit to God when performing their duty. If they don’t solve the issue of their corrupt dispositions, they’ll never be able to attain a normal relationship with God, and never have a submissive heart toward Him. Just like nonbelievers, they will be too rebellious, always denying and resisting God in their heart, and it will be impossible for them to perform their duty well. This is why pursuing and practicing the truth is so critical! You don’t pursue the truth, but still want to resolve your notions, misunderstandings, and complaints about God—can you achieve this? Definitely not. Some people say: “I’m just a simple person, I don’t have anything like notions, misunderstandings, or complaints. I don’t think about these things.” Can you guarantee that you don’t have any notions if you don’t think about it? Can you avoid revealing your corrupt dispositions by not thinking about it? No matter what corruption someone reveals, it is always determined by their nature. People all live by their satanic nature; their satanic dispositions are deeply rooted within them, and have become their nature essence. People have no means by which to eradicate their satanic dispositions, it is only by using the truth and God’s words that they can gradually solve all the issues of their corrupt dispositions.

Where does an improvement in a person’s relationship with God, or a lack thereof, manifest? It manifests in the attitude and views you have when faced with people, events, and things. If your attitude and views come from satanic philosophies for worldly dealings, or knowledge and theories, and you hold these things as your life philosophy and motto, then are you someone who pursues the truth? Have you gained the truth? (No.) It can’t be definitively said that you aren’t someone who pursues the truth; perhaps you’re on the road to pursuing the truth, but at the very least it shows that you haven’t entered the truth realities. If, when faced with something that doesn’t accord with your notions, you immediately get angry, pound the table and shout at people, refuse to accept it, and do not submit, what is the problem here? Is this a person who lives before God? Why are you unable to seek the truth? This shows that the truth has not yet taken charge of your heart! If you can’t even keep calm over such a triviality, and such a small matter exposes your ugly state, then this proves that you’re not good at using the truth to solve problems, and that you set aside seeking the truth when you lose your temper. If that’s the case, how can you have life entry? Some people believe in God for many years, but no matter what happens they behave like nonbelievers, living according to satanic philosophies and never seeking the truth or changing their perspective on how they interact with others and handle matters. Although they have not committed any obvious evil acts or made any egregious mistakes, and they appear to be good people, they’ve believed in God for many years but don’t have life entry, and have never put the truth into practice. Can people like that attain God’s salvation? I’m afraid it’ll be difficult for them to attain it. Some people believe in God for many years, and no matter what happens they always say, “In my opinion such-and-such…,” “I plan so-and-so…,” and “I think this-and-that…,” or they say, “This old saying put it well…,” and “It’s like that famous person said….” People who always talk like this have a problem, as it proves that they are someone who is of Satan, someone who doesn’t have the slightest bit of the truth in their heart. When something happens, if you always say, “I remember that God’s words say…,” “God once said…,” or “In one of the sermons of God’s house, it was preached that…,” “There’s a line in a hymn of God’s words that says…,” if you always think about problems and talk like this, it proves that you’re someone who loves the truth and who possesses some of the truth reality. Whatever happens to someone who believes in God, they must first work out what God’s words say, compare everything against God’s words, and use God’s words as their foundation, base, and starting point. Is this not the attitude they should have when pursuing and practicing the truth? This is the bare minimum. Nowadays, although people listen to sermons and read God’s words every day, when things happen, they still say, “My mother said…,” “There’s an old saying…,” “Such-and-such a famous person said…,” “A proverb said…,” and “As the common saying goes….” Where did the words of God that they ate and drank go? From these people’s attitude and reactions, you can see that they still haven’t gained the truth or entered the truth realities, and that they don’t have God-fearing hearts and always speak in the tone of nonbelievers. Such people have a numb and dull-witted countenance. What causes this? (Not pursuing the truth causes it.) People may look numb and dull-witted on the outside, but what are they like on the inside? They’re withered inside, in other words, they still haven’t been watered and fed by the truth. They’re still hungry, and have not yet gained the truth. So, they live numb, exhausted lives, they are slow to react, and when something happens they’re particularly helpless, and say from time to time, “God, I don’t know what to do!” “I’m confused!” or “I have no path!” These words are always on their lips. Are they good words? (No, they’re not.) So why do some people always learn them? They’ve even become popular buzzwords. Why do these words sound so awkward to Me? They’re not good words, and there’s no need to learn them. Don’t pay attention to popular things, instead pay attention to the truth and solving your own practical problems. You must reflect on whether your views, attitude, intention, and starting point reveal a corrupt disposition when things happen to you. You must reflect on this. No matter what happens, do you rely on satanic philosophies and use human methods to solve it, or do you seek the truth and solve it according to God’s words, or do you adopt a compromising middle ground approach? Your choice best reveals if you’re someone who loves and pursues the truth. If you always choose to solve problems by relying on satanic philosophies and human methods, the consequence will be that you cannot gain the truth, nor the enlightenment, illumination, and guidance of the Holy Spirit. What’s more, notions and misunderstandings about God will arise in you, and He will ultimately spurn and eliminate you. But if you can seek the truth in all things and solve them according to God’s words, then you’ll be able to attain the enlightenment, illumination, and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Your understanding of the truth will grow ever clearer, and you’ll come to know God more and more; in this way you’ll be able to truly submit to and love God. After practicing and experiencing in this way for a period of time, your corrupt dispositions will be ever more cleansed, and you’ll have fewer and fewer instances of rebelling against God, until eventually you’ll achieve complete compatibility with Him. If you always choose the compromising middle ground approach, you’re actually still relying on satanic philosophies to handle problems. Living like this will never earn you God’s approval, you’ll only be revealed and eliminated. If you’ve chosen the wrong way to believe in God, the religious way, you need to reverse your course quickly, step back from the brink, and adopt the right way. Then there might still be hope for you to attain salvation. If you want to gain the right way of believing in God, then you must seek and fumble around for it on your own. Someone who has spiritual understanding will find the right path after a period of experience.

So, what did we just fellowship on? (We fellowshipped on what the pursuit of the truth mainly solves, that is, the various erroneous views people have about God, and people’s corrupt dispositions. We also fellowshipped on what people’s views, attitudes, and intentions are when things happen to them, and on whether people approach things using satanic philosophies and human notions and imaginings, or solve them through seeking the truth.) These words are easy to remember, but the key is whether you’re able to measure against God’s words when something happens, and if you’re able to find the principles of practice. If you can apply the principles, then you’ll be able to put the truth into practice, and if you can put the truth into practice, you’ll have the truth realities. Understanding the truth doesn’t mean you’ve gained the truth. It is only when you can put the truth into practice that you’ll truly be able to understand it. If you put the truth into practice often and do so completely in line with the principles, then this is gaining the truth. Merely being able to speak about words and doctrines cannot be considered good caliber. You only have the comprehension ability if you can seek the truth to solve problems when things befall you. The most crucial thing is being able to solve practical problems. For example, if you have a good relationship with a brother or a sister, and they ask you to point out what is wrong with them, how should you do it? This relates to what approach you take to the matter. Is your approach based on the truth principles, or do you use philosophies for worldly dealings? If you can clearly see that they have a problem, but don’t tell them outright so as to avoid harming your relationship, and you even make excuses, saying, “My stature is small now and I don’t understand your problems thoroughly. When I do, I’ll tell you,” then what is the issue? This involves a philosophy for worldly dealings. Is this not trying to fool others? You should speak of as much as you can see clearly; and if something is not evident to you, say so. This is saying what’s in your heart. If you have certain thoughts and certain things are evident to you, but you are afraid of offending them, terrified of hurting their feelings, and so choose to say nothing, then this is living by a philosophy for worldly dealings. If you discover that someone has a problem or has gone astray, even if you can’t help them with love, at the very least you must point out the problem so that they can reflect on it. If you ignore it, isn’t this doing them harm? If you help them once, and discover that they don’t accept the truth, that they are unreasonable, have a vicious disposition, and fundamentally do not love the truth, then you’d be wise to not point out their problems to them. But if you also don’t point out problems to someone who can accept the truth, then you do not have love. If you interact with your brothers and sisters like this, then you’re just playing games, tricking people with clever words, and always wanting to laugh at other people. People who act like this are not good people, and there is a disposition contained within this. Such people are living entirely by satanic philosophies, they are not speaking or acting from within the reason of normal humanity, nor are they behaving according to the truth principles. According to the truth principles, then, how should you approach this matter? What action accords with the truth? How many relevant principles are there? Firstly, at the very least, do not cause others to stumble. You must first consider the other’s weaknesses and what way of speaking with them will not cause them to stumble. This is the very least that ought to be considered. Next, if you know they are someone who truly believes in God and can accept the truth, then when you notice they have a problem, you should take the initiative to help them. If you do nothing and laugh at them, this constitutes hurting and harming them. Someone who does so has no conscience or reason, and they have no love for others. Those who have a bit of conscience and reason cannot just look at their brothers and sisters as a joke. They should think of different ways to help them resolve their problem. They should let the person understand what happened and where their mistake was. Whether they can repent is their own matter; we will have lived up to our responsibility. Even if they do not repent now, sooner or later there will be a day when they come to their senses, and they will not complain about you or accuse you. At the least, how you treat your brothers and sisters cannot be below the standards of conscience and reason. Do not indebt yourself to others; help them to the extent you can. This is what people should do. People who can treat their brothers and sisters with love and in accordance with the truth principles are the best kind of people. They are also the most kind-hearted. Of course, true brothers and sisters are those people who can accept and practice the truth. If a person only believes in God to eat their fill of bread or to receive blessings, but does not accept the truth, then they are not a brother or sister. You must treat true brothers and sisters according to the truth principles. No matter how they believe in God or what path they are on, you should help them in the spirit of love. What is the minimum effect one should achieve? First, it is not causing them to stumble, and not letting them become negative; second, it is helping them, and making them turn back from the wrong path; and third, it is making them understand the truth and choose the right path. These three sorts of effect can only be achieved by helping them in the spirit of love. If you do not have true love, you cannot achieve these three sorts of effect, and you could only achieve one or two at best. These three sorts of effect are also the three principles for helping others. You know these three principles and have a handle on them, but how are they actually enacted? Do you truly understand the other’s difficulty? Is this not another problem? You must also think, “What is the origin of their difficulty? Am I capable of helping them? If my stature is too small and I cannot solve their problem, and I speak carelessly, I may point them onto the wrong path. Beyond that, how is this person’s comprehension ability, and what is their caliber? Are they opinionated? Do they have spiritual understanding? Can they accept the truth? Do they pursue the truth? If they see that I am more capable than them, and I fellowship with them, will jealousy or negativity arise in them?” These questions must all be considered. After you have considered and gained clarity on these questions, go fellowship with that person, read several passages of God’s words that apply to their problem, and enable them to understand the truth in God’s words and find the path to practice. Then, the problem will be solved, and they will get out of their difficulty. Is this a simple matter? This is no simple matter. If you do not understand the truth, then no matter how much you say, it will be of no use. If you do understand the truth, you can enlighten and benefit them with just a few sentences. The key to helping people with love is to fellowship on a few passages of God’s words about the problem, and this method is most effective. If you do not fellowship on God’s words, and try to use human words alone, then you will never solve any practical problems, no matter how many words you speak. Some people can only exhort others and will say, no matter what problems other people face, “Read more of God’s words and seek the truth in them, then it’ll be easy to solve the problem,” or “You should love God, and that’s enough. You’ll never be negative, as loving God will solve all your problems.” It is nowhere near that simple. Is loving God something you can practice as soon as you’ve said it? How do people love God if they don’t understand the truth? How can people love God if they don’t know His work? If people truly love God, then they’ll never be negative, and won’t have any difficulties. Loving God is not a simple matter, and is it accomplished just by speaking about a few doctrines or shouting a few slogans? Submitting to God is even less simple, and it’s not like saying a few words of exhortation can make someone submit to Him. Even if fellowshipping on God’s words can bring people a little benefit at the time, it’s not as if you can solve the problem of their rebelliousness and bring them to submit to God by just fellowshipping on the truth once, and it is not as if people will immediately be able to submit to God when you fellowship on the truth clearly. People must experience judgment, chastisement, and pruning, in order to achieve results. People who always speak about words and doctrines to exhort others are the shallowest. They have no truth realities, they always rely on speaking about words and doctrines to help people, and they achieve no results. This is called being perfunctory, and is not a sincere way to treat people; it’s too fake, it is not kind-hearted. In sum, this kind of person is a hypocrite. If you do not have a heart of sympathy or love for others, how can you help people? It’s not easy to truly solve a problem. You must understand the truth, see through the essence of the problem, and then fellowship clearly with others in accordance with the truth principles, and be able to fellowship on the path of practice in a way that others understand. In this way, people will not only understand the truth, but also have a path for putting it into practice, only then can the problem be considered solved. You must go through these things; understanding will come through your practical, first-hand experience. The more you fellowship on the truth, the clearer it will become, the more assured your heart will grow, and the more you’ll have a path forward. When you really understand the truth, you’ll know how to put it into practice. Believers in God must experience in this way, they must solve their problems one by one, and each time they resolve a problem they have to resolve a kind of corrupt disposition. When they have solved a lot of problems, their corrupt dispositions will have more or less been resolved too. In such a manner, the more problems they solve, the fewer corrupt dispositions they will have, and the more realities of submission to God they will possess. In this way, people will enter the truth realities without even knowing it. The more problems people solve, and the more truths they understand, the more paths to practice they will have; the more problems they solve, and the more corrupt dispositions they cleanse, the more truth realities they’ll enter. This is the process of believing in God: You constantly discover problems and solve them—once you solve one problem, you discover another and then solve it, and in the end you solve many problems, you come to understand the truth, and if a problem appears again, you’ll be able to solve it quickly yourself. This is how you gradually grow in stature. With fewer and fewer problems and difficulties, you’ll definitely reveal less corruption, submit to God even more, and have more experiential testimony. In this way, without even realizing it, your life disposition will change, and you’ll ultimately achieve compatibility with God. You won’t have any rebelliousness, and you will be able to put the truth into practice and submit to God in any matter. This means that you will have grown in stature, and completely achieved salvation.

It really is simple to put the truth into practice, but if you don’t have sufficient comprehension ability, or your heart isn’t in it, and you’re always sloppy and perfunctory, then you’ll never gain the truth. So, how can someone gain the truth? Is it through dubious tricks or force? No. It’s gradually obtained, little by little, through accumulation, seeking, first-hand experience, and fumbling, as you go through real life. This is also the way the Holy Spirit guides you, sometimes just giving you a few words, which you don’t understand at the time, but come to understand after a few days through seeking the truth, and then your heart lights up, and you have a path. You gain, but others don’t, and you grow in this aspect of the truth. That is being shown favor. Some details of the truth must be felt and experienced, and as your experience grows deeper and more detailed, you’ll feel your path more accurately. Without even knowing it, you’ll follow this path in seeking and practicing the truth. You’ll gain even more enlightenment on the foundation of your understanding of the truth, and understand more details of the truth and more truth realities. This is the path of pursuing the truth. If you can experience and practice this, you’ll feel that putting the truth into practice isn’t hard, but if you don’t practice in this way, then you’ll always feel that it’s abstract and difficult, more difficult than attending university or researching any advanced technology. But in fact, it’s just a matter of using your heart. Learning any professional knowledge or theory relies on memory, and mental analysis and research, but only gaining the truth requires you to use your heart. You must use your heart to experience it and taste it, and put effort into thinking about how to experience it. Gradually you will come to find and gain the right path for putting the truth into practice. Then you will have gained a treasure. What’s the secret to gaining the truth? Firstly, do not use satanic thinking, logic, philosophies for worldly dealings, or techniques to handle the things that happen around you. That is a dead end, for if you live by satanic philosophies then you will never be able to gain the truth. When things happen, if your first reaction is to handle and solve them using human methods and techniques, and you always want to protect your personal interests and image, then this will lead to a dead end. If you can seek the truth when facing a problem, if you can pray to God and seek His intentions, and know what lessons you should learn, and what truths you should understand within God’s arrangements, then this is correct. Therefore, no matter what happens to those who don’t pursue the truth, they’re always numb, awkward, hesitant, helpless, and without a path. In fact, God gives people many chances to gain the truth but, because they don’t love the truth, they choose the wrong path and fail to gain it.

People who live amid corrupt dispositions live for status, vanity, profit, and desire. All of corrupt humanity is like this, virtually the same with only some minor differences. Regardless of how many corrupt dispositions a person has, after coming to believe in God all those who love the truth can come to an understanding of their own corrupt dispositions through eating, drinking, and experiencing God’s words, and many of their corrupt dispositions will gradually be solved, and they will reveal less and less corruption. They are totally different than nonbelievers, they are two distinct kinds of people, and is this not a change achieved by pursuing the truth? These people go from being nonbelieving devils to transforming into real people who have gained the truth and who live out a human likeness after they come to believe in God; this is the gain and the fruit of belief in God. But those who don’t pursue the truth at all after coming to believe in God, don’t change even after many years of belief, and are still the same as nonbelievers—this kind of person will be eliminated. Why is there such a big difference between people who similarly believe in God and perform duties? The crucial point is that their attitudes toward the truth are different. The hearts of those who love the truth will grow ever brighter the more they read God’s words, and the more they listen to sermons the more they’ll understand—they are always making progress. But those who don’t love the truth don’t enjoy reading God’s words, nor do they make an effort to put the truth into practice, so their corrupt dispositions cannot be solved or cast off. They can’t disguise their corrupt dispositions, even if they try, and they can’t cover them up, even if they want to. This is because corrupt humans have all been corrupted by Satan, be they nonbelievers or those who believe in God, the essence of their corrupt satanic dispositions is actually the same, and they all live for status, image, profit, and desire. What do people argue for the sake of? Why do they beat each other to a pulp over something? It is all for these things, and no matter the method, technique, or form, the goal is actually the same. Why was Satan cast down into midair? (Because it competed for status with God.) This is the true face of Satan. Nowadays, Satan’s “genes” have been passed down to corrupt mankind, corrupting them, so people have become Satan’s ilk, they have taken on the appearance of Satan, and what they live out is identical to Satan. If you can recognize the corrupt dispositions within Satan’s nature essence, and then solve them one by one, you will be saved and be able to break away from Satan’s influence. Is it difficult to solve the problem of corrupt dispositions? (It’s not difficult for those who pursue the truth, but most of the time we aren’t willing to put the truth into practice, and just act according to our own will. When we are pruned we become negative and upset for a while, before reluctantly practicing according to the truth.) All those who don’t love the truth are like this, and must be urged, pulled, and pushed by others to put even a little bit of the truth into practice. What is the greatest difficulty in putting the truth into practice? Now there are some people who see clearly that the greatest difficulty is mainly the hindrances that come from corrupt dispositions. It is due to people’s love of fame, gain, status, vanity, and image. Conversations, disputes, and arguments between people are all competitions to see who is superior—whoever is able to convince the other ends up looking good. They are all competitions about who has the insight, the competence, or the authority, and who has the final say. There’s no end to the competition over these things, and concealed behind all this is Satan’s disposition, which lives for fame, gain, and status. See through this, and the problem can easily be solved. At the very least first resolve those surface-level things that are easy to solve, and then gradually solve the misunderstandings, speculations, doubts, and complaints about God that are in your innermost heart, as well as the opposition, testing, and competition that are concealed there. Once these are completely resolved, you’ll become like Job, a perfect person in the eyes of God. Why did God say that Job was a perfect person? Through God’s trial of him, we can see that he had no opposition or testing when it came to God. During his life, and the period when he experienced God’s sovereignty over all things, things like his rebelliousness and resistance were all pruned away and solved. Once these negative things had been solved, his behavior was totally different from that of all corrupt mankind when he faced God’s trials. Is what he said during his trials, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah,” a doctrine? It definitely isn’t. These words have weight, and no one had ever said them before; they were first spoken by Job, and came from his personal experiences.

Are you worried when you see yourselves revealing so much corruption on a daily basis, and always living amid a satanic disposition, without much change? (Yes, I worry, and sometimes I feel tormented.) It is normal to worry, as is to feel tormented. But no matter how worried or tormented you feel, you need to calm down and seek how to solve your corrupt dispositions. This is the correct state of mind. If you feel tormented for a number of years and your corrupt dispositions still haven’t been resolved, this won’t do and this feeling of torment is useless. You must ponder, “Which of my problems have been solved? Which of my corrupt dispositions have been resolved? In which matters do I no longer complain about God?” You must always ask yourself this. If you say, “I always used to complain and grumble when faced with this kind of thing, and harbored misunderstandings about God, but now I don’t complain when it happens again, and I harbor no misunderstandings about God,” then this shows you haven’t wasted your time. Once you understand and have gained the truth, you’ll have a different attitude toward God, and will naturally have a God-fearing heart and a submissive state of mind. This isn’t ordinary deference, or showing respect from a distance, or yearning, love, attachment, or dependence; it’s not just these things, it’s real fear. For corrupt mankind today, it’s still too early to talk about fearing God, too distant. So, what should you first pursue now? To not be suspicious of God no matter what happens. How can you refrain from being suspicious? First, you must know what God’s intentions are, and what the truth is. Second, when things happen which don’t accord with your notions, don’t complain about God, or have any misunderstandings about Him. How can you refrain from having any misunderstandings? You need to understand the truth, and then gradually break through and resolve your notions and misunderstandings about God one by one. The day will come when, no matter how great the trial or tribulation you face, you will not resist, instead you will have a God-fearing heart, and be able to submit no matter how He tests you. Then you will have succeeded. What stage are you in right now? When things happen, you ponder, “Is this God’s doing? Is it right for Him to do it?” or even sometimes think, “Where is God? Is there even a God? How come I can’t feel Him?” There are many such thoughts and states, and this is not alright, as you’re still far from embarking on the path to being made perfect. You must work hard in your pursuit, as presently your stature is still too small, falling short of the standard for possessing the truth realities. Don’t think that you’re alright and you possess some realities, so you can go to heaven and become an angel. Your few realities still fall far too short; even if you were fitted with wings you’d still be no angel. Don’t think too well or too highly of yourself, you should have a little self-awareness. Can you testify to God? Are you fit for God’s use? Measured by this standard, you’re still far from God’s requirements, and need several more years’ experience.

March 11, 2018