There are quite a few young people among you, as well as people who have not yet established families. You all have left your homes to do your duty for several years, so do you miss home? Do you miss your parents? Do you often live in the state of missing your parents? Let’s hear about the state of missing your parents—this is a real experience. (When I had just come overseas, I especially missed my mother and sister; I always used to rely on them, so when I left on my own, I constantly missed them. But with this much overseas experience, I feel that the One I can’t leave behind now is God; when anything happens, I pray to Him, and I do not miss them anymore.) These are two different states. What is the first state? Always missing home, missing your mother and sister. What are the specifics of this kind of state? It’s that when something happens, you do not know how to do this or that, so you feel helpless; you cannot be without your loved ones at your side, and you have no one to rely on. When you open your eyes in the morning, you start to miss them, and before you sleep at night you think of them; you are stuck in this kind of state of missing your loved ones. So why do you miss them so much? It is because your circumstances have changed and you’ve left them behind. You worry about them, and moreover, you had grown accustomed to relying on them, living and depending on them for survival. You were already inseparable from one another in many things in life, so you miss them very much; this is the kind of state you are in. So what kind of state are you in now that you do not miss them? (I feel like leaving my home and doing my duty is the love of God, His salvation, which has enabled me to learn how to rely on Him. My corrupt disposition has changed somewhat, and my soul feels comforted; additionally, by recognizing God’s sovereignty, I know that the fates of all people are in His hands. They have their mission, and I have my mission, so I no longer miss them.) Is the problem resolved? (I feel like it is.) What does everyone think, is it resolved? (It is temporarily resolved.) It is temporarily resolved. If one day you were to run into a sister whose looks, tone of voice, or way of treating you is especially like your mother, or especially like your sister, how would you feel? (I would start to miss them again.) You would once again fall into the state of thinking of them, so the problem would not be resolved. So how do you solve this problem at its root? When you miss your loved ones, what are you missing? Usually when you miss someone, miss a loved one, or miss home, you certainly do not miss the things that made you sad; you miss the things that pleased you, the things that made you feel happy and good, and that you enjoyed, like how your mother used to take care of you, dote on you, and cherish you, or the nice things your father used to buy for you. You miss all these good things, so you cannot stop missing your loved ones. The more you think about your loved ones, the more you cannot give them up, and you cannot restrain yourself. Some people say: “After all these years I’ve never left my mother before. I follow her wherever she goes, I am the apple of her eye. How can I not miss her after having been gone so long?” Missing her is natural; this is just how people’s flesh is. Corrupt human beings live in their feelings. They think: “Only living this way is the semblance of a human. If I don’t even miss my loved ones, or think of them, or find sustenance in them, then am I even human? Would I not be the same as an animal?” Do people not think this way? If they have no affection or friendship, and they do not think of others, then others think they have no humanity and that they cannot live this way. Is this viewpoint correct? (No.) In fact, whether or not you miss your parents is not a big issue. It is not wrong to miss them, nor is it wrong to not miss them. Some people are highly independent, while some people are glued to their parents, but you have all been able to leave your homes and parents to do your duty. First of all, you do have the willingness to do your duty, the will to do your duty, the will to expend yourselves and cast things aside for God; but your difficulties cannot be solved with a single burst of effort, nor can you resolve your corrupt dispositions with a single burst of effort’s good deeds and good conduct. You do understand this doctrine, right? So how do you resolve the matter of missing your parents at its root? Some people have left home and been living independently for two or three years; they have already grown up, and do not miss their parents so much. Is the problem thus resolved? No. If you ask them who they are closest to, they reply with a textbook answer: “I am closest to God, God is dearest to me!” But in their hearts they think: “God is not at my side, nor is He able to take care of me. I am still closest to my mother. I come from her very flesh, she dotes on me the most, and she understands and comprehends me the most. When things are at their most difficult and bitter, my mother is always there to comfort, help, and care for me. Now, having left home, there is no one like my mother to take care of me when I am sick. You say God is good, but I cannot see His face, so where is He? That’s not practical.” They think it is not practical to rely on God, and their words about God being the closest to them are a little forced, a little hypocritical. In fact, in the depths of their heart, they think that their mother is closest to them. But why? “I believe in God because of the gospel spread to me by my mother; without her, I wouldn’t be here.” Do they not think this way? (They do.) Do you think such people understand the truth? (They do not.) Your mother merely gave birth to you and cared for you for twenty-some years. Can she grant you the truth? Can she grant you life? Can she save you from Satan’s influence? Can she cleanse your corrupt disposition? She cannot do any of these things. Parental grace and parental love are therefore severely limited. What can God do for you? God can grant people the truth, can save them from Satan’s influence and from death, and can grant them eternal life—is this not great love? This love is as high as the heavens and as deep as the earth. It is incredibly great: a hundred, no, a thousand times greater than the love of a parent. If people really come to know how great God’s love is, will they still feel so strongly about their parents? Will they still think about them all day long during New Year and holidays? If they understand the truth, they will think more about God’s love. If someone believes in God for years and still thinks that their parents’ love is greater than God’s, then that person is blind, and they have no faith in God at all. If someone believes in God, but does not pursue the truth, can they resolve their corrupt disposition? Can they attain salvation? They cannot. If your corrupt disposition has not been resolved and your spiritual life has not grown to a certain stature, then you can shout some slogans, but you will not be able to carry them out, because you do not have the stature. You can do things as great as you have the power to do. You can get through trials as great as you have the stature to endure. You can enter into as much of the truth reality as you can understand; that is how much of the truth reality you can live out. Correspondingly, it is also how much of the revelation of your corrupt disposition and how many of your own difficulties you can solve; it is homologous.

One day, when you understand some of the truth, you will no longer think that your mother is the best person, or that your parents are the best people. You will realize that they are also members of the corrupt human race, and that their corrupt dispositions are all the same. All that sets them apart is the physical blood relationship with you. If they don’t believe in God, then they are the same as the unbelievers. You will no longer look at them from the perspective of a family member, or from the perspective of your fleshly relationship, but from the side of the truth. What are the main aspects you should look at? You should look at their views on belief in God, their views on the world, their views on handling matters, and most importantly, their attitudes toward God. If you assess these aspects accurately, you will be able to see clearly whether they are good or bad people. One day you may see clearly that they are people with corrupt dispositions just like you. It may be even clearer that they are not the kind-hearted people who have real love for you that you imagined them to be, nor are they able to lead you to the truth or onto the right path in life at all. You may see clearly that what they have done for you is of no great benefit to you, and that it is of no use to you in taking the right path in life. You may also find that many of their practices and opinions are contrary to the truth, that they are of the flesh, and that this makes you despise them, and feel repulsed and averse. If you come to see these things, you will then be able to treat your parents correctly in your heart, and you will no longer miss them, worry about them, or be unable to live apart from them. They have completed their mission as parents, so you will no longer treat them as the closest people to you or idolize them. Instead, you will treat them as ordinary people, and at that time, you will completely escape the bondage of feelings and truly emerge from your feelings and family affection. Once you’ve done that, you will realize that those things are not worth cherishing. At that point, you will see relatives, family, and fleshly relationships as stumbling blocks to understanding the truth, and to freeing yourself of feelings. It’s because you have that familial relationship with them—that fleshly relationship that paralyzes you, leads you astray, and makes you believe that they treat you the best, are the closest to you, care for you better than anyone, and love you the most—it’s all of this that makes you unable to clearly discern if they are good or bad people. Once you have truly walked away from these feelings, though you may still think of them from time to time, will you still miss them with all of your heart, dwell on them, and long for them the way you do now? You won’t. You won’t say: “The person I really can’t be without is my mother; she is the one who loves me, takes care of me, and cares for me the most.” When you have this level of perception, will you still cry when you think of them? No. This problem will be resolved. So with problems or matters that are causing you difficulty, if you haven’t gained that aspect of the truth and if you haven’t entered into that aspect of the truth reality, you will be trapped in such difficulties or states, and you will never be able to come out from them. If you treat these kinds of difficulties and problems as the key problems of life entry and then seek the truth to resolve them, then you will be able to enter into this aspect of the truth reality; unwittingly, you will learn your lesson from these difficulties and problems. When the problems are resolved, you will feel that you are not as close to your parents and family members, you will more clearly see their nature essence, and you will see what kind of people they truly are. When you see your loved ones clearly, you will say: “My mother does not accept the truth at all; she is actually averse to the truth and hates it. In her essence, she is an evil person, a devil. My father is a people pleaser, standing on the side of my mother. He neither accepts nor practices the truth at all; he is not someone who pursues the truth. Based on my mother’s and father’s behavior, the two of them are nonbelievers; they are both devils. I have to completely rebel against them, and draw clear boundaries with them.” In this way, you will stand on the side of the truth, and will be able to renounce them. When you are able to discern who they are, what kind of people they are, will you still have feelings for them? Will you still feel affection for them? Will you still have a fleshly relationship with them? You will not. Will you still need to restrain your feelings? (No.) So what do you actually rely on to resolve these difficulties? You rely on understanding the truth, on depending on God, and looking up to God. If you are clear on these things in your heart, then do you still need to restrain yourself? Do you still feel wronged? Do you still need to suffer such great pain? Do you still need others to fellowship with you and do ideological work? You do not, because you have already settled things yourself—it is a piece of cake. Coming back around, how do you resolve the issue of not wanting to think of or miss them? (Seek the truth to resolve it.) Those are big words that sound very official—but speak a little more practically. (Apply God’s words to see through to their essence; that is, discern them based on their essence. Then, we will be able to set aside our affection, and our fleshly relationship.) That’s right. You must base your discernment of people’s nature essence on the words of God. Without the exposure of the word of God, no one can see through to the nature essence of others. Only by being based in the words of God and the truth can one see through to people’s nature essence; only then can one solve the problem of human feelings at its source. Start first by leaving behind your affections and fleshly relationships; whoever your feelings are strongest for, that is who you should first dissect and discern. What do you think of this solution? (It’s good.) Some people say: “Discerning and dissecting the people for whom my feelings are strongest—that’s so callous!” The point of having you discern them is not so that you will sever relations with them—it is not so that you will cut off your parent-child relationships, nor is it so that you will totally forsake them, never to interact with them again. You should fulfill your responsibilities toward your loved ones, but you cannot be constrained or tangled up by them, because you are a follower of God; you must possess this principle. If you might still become constrained or tangled up by them, you cannot do your duty well, nor can you guarantee that you can follow God to the end of the road. If you were not a follower of God or lover of the truth, then no one would require this of you. Some people say: “I do not currently understand the truth; I do not know how to discern others.” If you do not have this stature, then set aside discernment for now. When your stature is sufficient, and you are able to pass through such trials, and to take the initiative yourself to practice this way, it will not be too late for you to practice this aspect of the truth.

Many people needlessly suffer emotionally; in fact, this is all unnecessary, useless suffering. Why do I say that? People are always constrained by their feelings, so they are unable to practice the truth and submit to God; in addition, being constrained by feelings is not at all beneficial to doing one’s duty or following God, and is moreover a huge obstacle to life entry. So, suffering the constraint of feelings has no meaning, and God does not remember it. So how do you free yourself from this meaningless suffering? You need to understand the truth, and see through to and understand the essence of these fleshly relationships; then it will be easy for you to be free of being constrained by the feelings of the flesh. Some people who believe in God are persecuted severely by their unbelieving parents; if they are not being forced to find a partner, they are being forced to find a job. They can do whatever they want, but they are not permitted to believe in God. Some parents even blaspheme against God, so these people see their parents’ true devilish colors. Only then do their hearts cry: “They truly are devils, so I cannot treat them as my loved ones!” Thenceforth, they are free from the constraints and fetters of their feelings. Satan wants to use affection to constrain and bind people. If people do not understand the truth, it is easy for them to be deceived. Quite often, for their parents’ and loved ones’ sake, they are unhappy, they cry, they endure hardships, and they make sacrifices. This is their benighted ignorance; they take it on the chin, and they reap what they sow. Suffering these things is without value—a futile effort that God will not remember at all—and one might say they are going through hell. When you really understand the truth and see through to their essence, you will become free; you will feel that your previous suffering was ignorant and benighted. You will not blame anyone else; you will blame your own blindness, your foolishness, and the fact that you did not understand the truth or see matters clearly. Is the problem of feelings an easy one to resolve? Have you resolved it? (Not yet. We have not yet practiced or entered into the path of practice that God has pointed out; it is just that we have a basis for reference when this kind of thing happens.) In saying all of this, whether speaking about practical matters, or about the things you have interpreted as paths, I am telling you: When you encounter this kind of thing, the best method for handling it is to pray to God and seek the truth, and then you will have a way to resolve it. When you have seen through to the essence of the feelings of the flesh, it will be easy for you to handle matters according to the truth principles. If you are always constrained by fleshly relationships with your loved ones, then you have no way to practice the truth; even if you understand doctrine and shout slogans, you will still be unable to solve your real problems. Some people simply do not know how to seek the truth. Others are able to seek the truth, but when people fellowship the truth clearly to them, they do not fully believe and are unable to totally accept it; they just listen to it as if it were doctrine. So, your problem of being constrained by your feelings can never be resolved; if it cannot be resolved, you can never emerge from within it, and you will continue to be constrained and bound. If you believe in God but are unable to follow Him or do the duty you ought to, then in the end, you will not be worthy of receiving God’s promise, until one day, you will fall into disaster and be punished—weeping and gnashing of teeth will be useless, and no one will be able to save you. Are you clear now on the consequences of not resolving corrupt dispositions?

What have we fellowshipped about today? We have fellowshipped about people’s states, their corrupt dispositions, as well as how to enter into the truth reality, how to correctly treat the matters that you encounter, what kind of viewpoints you ought to hold, and how to know, dissect, and resolve your own corrupt disposition. The lesson of life entry must always be learned; it is never too late to learn, or too late to start. So when is it too late? If you have died, then it is too late; if you are still alive, then it is not too late. Right now you are all alive, not dead, but are you really clear on what the living and the dead are? In English, people always say, “I’m still alive.” What does that mean? It is when you are at a loss when things happen to you, or you have been dragged into the tide of society, or you feel that you are degenerate, and then you prick yourself with a needle and can perceive it—then you will feel that you are still alive, that your heart has not yet died. If you are still alive, then you should have pursuits and live out the semblance of a human. Before, you were degenerate, you followed worldly things and you lived in a tide of evil; is it not time to pull yourself together now and avoid degenerating further? You see, Westerners have not found the true way, and they feel hopeless when it comes to human life and their lifestyle, so their words are filled with deep emotion, and have a sort of dejection and hopelessness—that is to say, a helpless mood—contained within. As they live, they often feel that they are not human, but they must live this way; even if they feel like ghosts, animals, or beasts, they must continue to live this way. What can be done? There is nothing they can do. If they do not die, then they must live this way; there is no other path for them, and they live pitiably. Are you all like this? If you are one day filled with deep emotion, thinking, “Ah, I’m still alive, my heart has not yet died”—if a person lives to that point, what will become of them? They are already in great danger! For a believer, this is already very dangerous. You absolutely cannot say something like “I am still alive, but my flesh is a shell, and I am a walking corpse. My heart is alive, and only the few desires and ideals in my heart are propping up my flesh.” Do not get to that point! If you get to that point, it will be very hard to save you. Looking at you all right now, your situations are not bad. If you read the word of God to an unbeliever, they will not gain any awareness; so if I now use severe words to prune you, will you be at all conscious of it? (Yes.) Some of you only come to a knowledge of yourselves after being pruned; only then do you feel remorse. This means you are still conscious, and your hearts have not yet fully died, which proves that you are still awake, still alive! If you can accept the truth and put it into practice, then you have a hope of being saved. If someone gets to the point that they simply will not accept the truth, then they have fully died, and they are beyond saving. There are more than a few people in the church who simply will not accept the truth. Although these people are breathing, they actually have no spirits. They are the spiritless dead, walking corpses. Such people have been completely revealed and eliminated.

October 5, 2016