Treasuring God's Words Is the Foundation of Belief in God (Part Three)
What is the next line? (“You must have a tremendous aspiration for God, ravenously seeking.”) These are all requirements that God makes of man. If people want to understand the truth and be saved, their hearts must yearn for this, they must have the will to pursue it, and they must have a real longing. Then, they must practice and enter in accordance with the path of practice laid out by God. Gradually, God will bring these people into the truth reality and into a correct and normal state. Such people will understand more and more of the truths in God’s words in an increasingly practical way. In the end, the many abnormal states possessed by these people, the corruption revealed in them, and their rebellion will be gradually resolved by the various methods of God’s work in the many diverse environments He arranges. So then, what is it you should understand? It is this: The things that people should do, the things they should put into practice, must be accomplished according to the requirements of God. When people practice and act in accord with God’s requirements, they will walk on the correct path that God has pointed out for them. When people walk on this correct path, God will, in His way and by His requirements and principles, bestow a proper portion upon them in due time. What should people understand here? The cooperation of people, the price they pay, and their expenditures are indispensable. People must act and practice according to God’s requirements. They must not act in accord with human desires or on the basis of human imaginings and notions. What end result is attained, how much someone can change, how much someone can gain: are these things determined by the wishes of the individual person? No, that is God’s business, and it has nothing to do with you. In the end, what and how much God gives to you, when He gives it to you, the age at which you receive what is given you: That is God’s business, and it has nothing to do with you. What is My meaning in this? It is that you only need to focus on practicing the truth, enter according to the path God gives to you, act as is proper of a created being, and provide the cooperation you should. As for what and how much you will receive, when you will receive it, and how God will dispose of these matters, that is God’s business and will occur in God’s time. Some people say, “If I put this into practice, will I be saved in the end?” Tell Me, do you think they can be saved? These words and truths that God has bestowed on and provided to man are man’s path to salvation. If you practice in accordance with these words and truths of God and enter into the reality of God’s word, do you still need to worry that you might not be saved? Do you still spend every day in worry and anxiety for fear that God will abandon you? Is this not caused by too little faith and the failure to understand God’s intentions? If you have truly entered into the truth reality, if your heart has peace and joy, if you can give real experiential testimony and have a normal relationship with God in your heart, will you still worry that you will not be saved? Do not worry, it is not your business. You should just practice and enter into God’s word. In the word of God, not a line is unimportant. The whole of God’s word is the truth, and the truth is the life that man should have. The whole of God’s words is what people need and should possess to achieve salvation. If you follow these words of God in practice but are still worried that you will not be saved, are you foolish and ignorant? Are your nerves oversensitive? You would get more enjoyment if, instead of entertaining such idle thoughts, you show consideration for the intentions of God. If you are walking the right path, the final destination you arrive at will certainly be the right one—the destination that God has specified for you. You will not go wrong. Therefore, if you practice and enter into God’s requirements, you do not need to worry over whether or not you can be saved. Just practice and pursue the path of salvation pointed out by God, that’s the right way. Some people say: “What will it feel like to attain salvation? Will we feel like we are floating on air? Will we feel different from how we feel now?” This question is a bit premature. This is not something you need to know right now. You will find out when you are truly saved. Some people say: “When I am saved, will God appear to me as He did to Job?” Is this a reasonable request? Do not ask for this. You still don’t know if you can be saved, so what’s the use of making this request? None at all. For example, say you are currently in primary school. You should focus on doing well in all of your classes and satisfying your teacher’s requirements. Don’t always ponder about “Which university will I go to in the future? What kind of job will I have later in life?” Thinking about those things is useless. It is too far away and unrealistic. As long as you practice and enter into correct methods and paths, you will certainly be able to achieve the ultimate goal. Besides, with God’s guidance, what are you still afraid of? Do you believe that God is your almighty? (I believe.) God is almighty, so is it difficult for God to save a small person like you? For God, it would be no difficult task to take the whole world and give it to you, so how could it be hard to save one little corrupt human being? So do you still need to be anxious? Don’t worry about whether God can save you, don’t worry about whether God’s words can save you. Rather, you should worry about whether you can understand God’s words and whether you can find a path of practice in God’s words. You should worry about whether you have now entered into the reality of God’s words and whether, in your actions, you are walking the path that God has pointed out. That’s much better. Thinking about these things is practical and realistic. It’s useless to worry about anything else.
What is the next line? (“Refusing Satan’s excuses, intentions, and tricks.”) We just fellowshipped about this line, so this problem should be easy to solve. It is only needed for man to understand that, most of the time, “Satan’s excuses, intentions, and tricks” stem from the various reasons, excuses, intentions, and tricks produced by man’s corrupt disposition as well as the methods used by various evil people and disbelievers who you come into contact with. As for how you can distinguish and reject such things and the choices you should make, that is your personal pursuit. Read the next line. (“Do not despair. Do not be weak. Seek with all your heart; wait with all your heart.”) We just fellowshipped about this line in detail as well. For man, every line is a warning and reminder, and at the same time, a kind of support, help, and provision. Of course, these words contain God’s intention for mankind and carry His overflowing hope for mankind. When people encounter weakness and difficulties, God does not want to see them lose hope, lose faith, lose their aspiration to pursue the truth and salvation, and lose the opportunity to gain the truth and be perfected by God. God does not want people to be cowards. Instead, no matter how many difficulties they encounter, no matter how weak they are, and no matter how much of their corruption is revealed, God hopes that people will never give up, persevere through it all, continue to pursue the truth, follow the paths of practice God has indicated for them in their pursuit, and still have a heart with a tremendous desire for God. People’s faith in God should grow increasingly with experience and with their understanding of God’s words, and they should not shrink when weakness is encountered, become negative when difficulties are encountered, sob when a little corruption is revealed, and shrink back instead of moving forward. God does not want to see displays such as these. God hopes that people will direct themselves to God wholeheartedly, never changing this for reasons of time, environment, physical location, or any situations that may occur. If your desire to seek God does not change and your resolve in seeking God does not slacken, God will see and know your sincere heart. In the end, what God bestows on you will certainly exceed all you could want. During the decades when Job experienced God’s sovereignty, he never dared to imagine that God would speak to him or appear to him in person. He never dared to imagine it, but God did appear to him after his last trial, talking to him personally from a whirlwind. Is this not beyond all man could ask for? (Yes.) This is beyond anything someone could ask, and no one dares to even entertain the idea. No matter what God does, man must stand in his proper place, do the things he should do, walk the path he should walk, do the duties given to him without going beyond what is asked of him, and refrain from doing things that God detests. Whenever you feel that you are asking too much of God, that your requests are the product of ambitions and desires and a lack of reason, you must immediately come before God, prostrate yourself before Him, and confess your sins. You must truly repent and turn yourself around from the bottom of your heart. This is what God requires of mankind and what He hopes for everyone who follows Him and loves the truth.
Here we end our fellowship on this passage. After so much fellowship, I have enjoined what should be enjoined and made you understand what is proper for man to understand. This sort of fellowship is meant to tell you how to read God’s words, to teach you the way to read God’s words, and to make it known to all that no passage in the word of God is spoken in vain. All of them are full of God’s intentions and carry God’s hopes. Viewed this way, all of God’s words are things that, whether they are profound or simple, man should possess and abide by. Just a few simple words contain the principles of practice that man should most abide by, yet no one accomplishes this. No one gives any importance to these few words of God and no one has any regard for them. Tell Me, how numb is man? Actually, numb is a nice way of putting it. In fact, it is due to man’s boundless arrogance that they all disdain these words and do not wish to see or read them. What do they want to read? They want to read deep, elevated, philosophical, and systematic words. Don’t talk about those high and deep words, it’s good enough if people can understand these few simple ones. These words may seem simple and anyone who reads them can understand them, but who really puts them into practice? Who can really take the things that happen to them before God and pray? Who waits for God’s time without fretting for solutions? How many people can practice this? Up to now, I haven’t found anyone who has observed and practiced these words of God, nor have I found anyone who has been attracted by these words, who has treasured the words of God after seeing how heartfelt, sincere, and precious they are. Hearing you playing this hymn just now, I asked you how you ate and drank this passage of the word of God. Has anyone discovered God’s intention from these few simple, plain, and straightforward words by pray-reading them? Has anyone pray-read them so as to find the path of practice that man should understand and enter into? Has anyone understood any truth from them? What I am asking is, have the truths they contain been brought to fruition in individual persons? Have they had an effect? Our fellowship has shown that actually they have not. Your stature is far too small. It seems that most of the words spoken by God over these years have yet to truly take root in your hearts. You have not attained the level at which you treasure them as truths. This is not a good omen. It is not a good sign. Some people say: “We are too busy performing our duties each day. We don’t have time to ponder the words of God.” In fact, it’s not that they don’t have the time, it’s that they don’t put in the effort or pay attention. No matter what duty someone performs, can it affect how they ponder the words of God in their heart? Can’t they ponder God’s words while eating and resting? It all depends on whether they have the desire. People think that being so busy means one is fulfilled. Actually, when you have free time to think, you will realize that you have never truly pondered any of God’s words in your heart. You have not retained anything and they have not become the guide for your life and the criterion for your practice. When you consider this, you will be ashamed. Your busyness is only an illusion that deceives you. It makes you feel that, because of your faith in God, your life is full rather than empty, that you are different from the people of the world, that you do not chase after the trends of the world. Rather, you are among the most just people, you are cooperating in the work of God, doing just deeds. You feel that you are already saved, or have already embarked on the road to salvation. Some people go so far as to think that they are already overcomers. Given all this, you even adopt this sort of attitude toward such a simple hymn and a few simple words of God, the very earliest that God expressed. No one has gained anything or found any enlightenment in these words, or put them into practice in any way. I cannot see anyone who has obtained any gains or results for themselves. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? (A bad thing.) During these years, you have been busily doing your duties, and especially have been busying yourselves with the work of the gospel. You have achieved some success and your hearts all feel wonderful. One way or another, the word of God and the work of the gospel have spread. God’s word has been brought to people in every country and region, and more people are eating and drinking the word of God. On the surface, you seem to have achieved success, but do you have any clue about that great matter in life, your salvation? Judging from the attitude people take to this passage of God’s word, they don’t have a clue. To use a local expression, the first stroke of the pen has not been made. Tell Me, how do I feel seeing you all like this? It’s just a few simple words, but I still need to elaborate and discuss them in detail with you. My words are too exhaustive and over-detailed. Are you willing to listen? Will you say that I nag too much? I don’t want to nag like this either. All of you look upright. You all have a bit of brains and knowledge, and most of you have a skill. Even so, you don’t pay any heed to the little words of this hymn and have not put them in your hearts. Up to now, not one person has entered into the reality of these words. That’s really a headache and irritation! So then, what’s the point of all the work you do in the church? Is it for the goal Paul was talking about when he said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness”? If this is really the goal, then you are all Pauls and what follows can’t be good! Is that it? (Yes.) If you don’t work hard at eating and drinking God’s words, sooner or later, you’ll be eliminated, and it will gain you nothing. On the day you are eliminated, you will say, “What have I gained?” Not one thing have you gained, so you are completely ashamed, and even wish you were dead. It is too pathetic. God’s words are rich and abundant, speaking on all matters. What a pity that you have never put your heart into their pursuit, that you have never earnestly read God’s words. Out of all the many words of God, not a single line holds a place in your heart. If you are not eliminated, who possibly could be? Is this how things stand? (Yes.) Eating and drinking God’s words, making God’s words into your reality: that is a major event. It is more important than anything else, more important than giving birth to the next generation, more important than doing one’s duty, more important than learning a professional skill, more important than working to spread the gospel, more important than all else. If you have not entered into the reality of God’s words, no matter what duties you perform, no matter how far you run, all of it will be of no value. In the end, you will achieve no results and all you do will come to nothing. No matter how hard you are running now, regardless of your current position, the job you are doing, or what grand achievements you have made, it’s just a wisp of smoke that will eventually pass out of sight. Only when a person enters into the reality of God’s words, obtains the truth they contain, and finds the principles, paths, and directions of practice in the words of God, then no one can take these things from them. It is only when they have entered into these truth realities that their performance of their duties and the price they have paid for everything will have meaning and value. Only then will it be accepted by God. After you have entered into the reality of God’s word and practiced the principles and standards required by God’s word in everything you do, then your duty is not performed in vain and a part of it will be accepted by God. Do you understand? (Yes.) If you only rely on your own self-restraint, human perseverance, human brains and gifts, and human ways and methods to bear suffering and pay the price, then all that you do has nothing to do with God’s words. What the final result will be should be clear to you. Many people can tally up their economic accounts and cost-benefit accounts, but there is no one to tally this account. You seem to be quite intelligent in handling external affairs, you have your means and methods, and you are quite shrewd, but you have neglected the matter of your faith in God and salvation and the matter of how to treat God’s words, never giving these things any notice. Did you think that by a lack of attention, you could escape the law that God requires? Did you think that, with a bit of effort, you would get lucky and escape God’s righteous judgment? Don’t deceive yourself! The laws made by man are all the product of human knowledge and insights. They are all human cleverness. They are not laws produced by God’s righteous disposition. Don’t adopt the mentality of chance when it comes to your salvation. You can only deceive yourself, you cannot deceive God.
What is the first great thing you should do in the pursuit of salvation? Eat and drink the words of God so that you understand the truth and enter into reality. This is the first great thing. No matter how busy you are in doing your duty, no matter how much work you have piled up, you must still take time to eat and drink God’s words, to find in them the principles and paths for practicing the truth in all things, and to enter into the truth reality. This is the sole aim of faith in God. Once you have entered into the truth reality and have obtained principles of practice, then everything you do will be the satisfactory performance of your duty, and it will become valuable and meaningful. Otherwise, all you do is laboring and you are not doing your duty. Nor will this laboring help to save you. If you don’t eat and drink God’s words, don’t practice and experience God’s words, don’t take entering into the truth reality as something serious, and are satisfied with simply exerting yourself and doing things without concern for putting the truth into practice, wouldn’t you be a fool? Everyone thinks they are smart and reliable in their work. “Now that I’m here, this job is sure to be done well. As long as I’m here to keep an eye out, nothing will disturb the church’s work. As long as I’m not idle, as long as I keep doing my duty in God’s house, then I will be saved.” Don’t fool yourself. God has never said that, as long as someone constantly does their duty, they will be saved. This comes from man’s own imagination and wishful thinking. Those who say this don’t know themselves at all, and they don’t understand the essence and truth of the depth to which man is corrupted by Satan. This is why they can speak such silly words. Through all the ages, were not the followers of God all doing their duties? Were they saved? No. Are they eligible to enter the kingdom of heaven? No. God’s work of judgment in the last days has clearly exposed the truth of man’s corruption. This allows everyone to understand, change course, and gain the truth and enter into reality, undergoing real changes. This is what God requires of man. Can you achieve real change if you only focus on constantly performing your duty? Can you gain the truth? Can you achieve submission to God? Not a chance. The critical thing is that one must pursue the truth, submit to God’s judgment and chastisement, and obtain the truth in order to accord with God’s intentions. In saying these words, God pays the price of His own heart’s blood and offers His life for man. If you don’t cherish them, but always ignore and despise them in your heart, never taking God’s words seriously, can you be saved? Can the end result possibly be good? You don’t even need to think about it. What is the first great thing when you believe in God? It is to eat and drink God’s words to understand the truth, and by this, to enter into the truth reality without delay. Start with the things happening around you, what you can see and feel. Use God’s word to reflect on yourself, seek the truth and solve all problems, and achieve real changes. If you don’t eat and drink God’s word and don’t enter into the reality of God’s word, your chances of being saved stand at zero. You have completely forfeited any chance of salvation. When God’s work has ended, you will say, “Previously, during the work of spreading God’s gospel, I did my part. During the work of spreading the gospel, I paid the price and dedicated my time and effort in such and such important step.” Yet up to that day, you still haven’t gained the truth, you can’t eat and drink God’s words normally, and you can’t perform your duty normally. Fundamentally, you are not a person who submits to God. Only then will you know that you have already forfeited your chance of salvation. Is it already too late? You have no chance, you have already fallen into disaster, and so your death is imminent. Therefore, this chance at salvation is very rare, and you must cherish every day and every minute. Start with the little things around you first, then gradually move to more things and bigger things. Seek God’s words and seek the truth, and enter into God’s words and the truth reality. You should often pray to God in your heart and get close to Him. Never let your heart be occupied by the wants of the flesh, the trends of the world, and other such satanic things. Instead, let God’s words and the truth wield power in your heart, and your heart will begin to treasure the words of God. As long as God’s words and the truth hold a place in your heart and lead your life, your life will have a goal and a light to guide it, and your heart will know enjoyment. If you understand three and then five of God’s words, and then ten words, and then a hundred words, these words will accumulate and, gradually, the words of God will, more and more, come to occupy your heart, lead your thoughts, lead your actions, and lead your life. More and more, you will enter into the reality of God’s words, and you will come to grasp more and more truth principles. Your actions will no longer be based on your own will and individual wants. Fewer and fewer impurities will be mixed up in your doing your duty, and you will increasingly treat God with a sincere heart. Slowly, the doctrines you understand will transform into the truth reality. In this way, there will be a real change in your life disposition. Your hope of salvation will no longer be slim or invisible, but will become increasingly perceivable and great. When you can see this light, this is actually the time when you start to gain an interest in God’s words and invest great hope in the matter of salvation. At such time, God will, more and more, let you understand His words, let you enter into His words, protect you against falling into temptation, protect you against falling into Satan’s snares and dark influence, and protect you against entanglements, conflicts, jealousies, and disputes, among other things. In this way, God will have you live in the light and live under the guidance of His words. This is happiness, joy, and peace. Accomplishing all of this starts with treasuring God’s words and practicing and experiencing God’s words to understand the truth. In fact, it is not difficult. If you often listen to sermons and can practice and experience God’s words, you will gradually come to understand the truth. In this way, gradually transitioning a little at a time and moving forward bit by bit, you will not find it difficult. The key thing is whether or not one loves the truth. If you love the truth, then with faith in God, you will be able to attend to proper matters, strive for the truth, and focus on reading and pondering God’s words. Learn to ponder God’s words and learn to pray-read God’s words. Then you will be able to understand the meaning of God’s words, you will be able to find paths of practice in God’s words, you will be able to understand God’s intentions, and you will begin to understand the truth. Then, reflect on and recognize your own corrupt disposition based on your understanding of the truth, dissect the essence of your corrupt disposition, and then use the truth to resolve it. If you practice and enter in this way, you will be able to truly know yourself, and it will be easy to cast off your corrupt disposition. Through gaining knowledge little by little, gaining experience little by little, coming to understand God’s intentions little by little, and casting off their corruption little by little, people will start to change without even realizing it. This is the process of life experience. Understanding the truth is the most critical thing. Once someone understands the truth, they will know the standards God requires man to follow. They will also know why God wants to say this and the effect He seeks to achieve. They will also know that the standards God requires of man are actually all achievable by human beings. They are all things human conscience and reason can achieve. These processes are all a matter of life entry. Life entry requires you to perform your duties diligently, seek the truth and practice the truth diligently, and pray to God and rely on God to perform your duties well. Through such experience and practice, you will have better and better results. People who do not love the truth will not show interest in such things. They do not feel a burden regarding life entry and have no interest in doing so. Therefore, although they have believed in God for many years, they cannot talk about their experiential testimony. People who love the truth are not like this. They can write out testimonies of everything they have experienced and each period of their experiences. They truly gain from all of their experiences, with these gains accumulating over the days and months. After ten or twenty years, they will have undergone great changes. At that time, they can write out their experiential testimonies without effort, and for them, engaging in fellowship on the truth is no hard thing. In doing their duty, they do everything properly.
Are you people who love the truth? Do you have hearts with a tremendous desire for God? Do you have sincere hearts? It’s hard to answer, isn’t it? In fact, in your hearts, you are all clear on this point. When you want to do your duty in a perfunctory manner, when you want to be slippery or slack off, when you want to be willful and reckless, can you recognize this? Can you rebel against the flesh? What choice do you make? Do you choose to practice the truth or choose the wants of the flesh? Do you choose the positive or the negative? Do you choose to suffer and pay the price in order to gain the truth, or do you choose to chase the comfort of the flesh? These are the questions that will be used to measure whether you have a heart that truly loves and submits to God, and whether you sincerely expend yourself for God. If you don’t have a sincere heart for God, you like to do things willfully and recklessly, you’re happy so long as you’re satisfied and get angry and throw a tantrum when you’re not, and you walk away when things don’t go your way, is this the proper state of mind? Is this what it means to have a heart of submission to God? Is this loyally doing your duty? Why don’t you practice the truth? Is it that you do not understand God’s words? Or is it that you do not love the truth? Some people think, “God’s words are simple, but it’s hard to put them into practice. The house of God always requires people to practice the truth, but this is hard for people and gives them a lot of problems. If my heart is uncomfortable, I don’t practice the truth. As long as the church does not clear me out or eliminate me, I will choose to be free and at ease and do whatever I want.” Is this someone who truly believes in God? Isn’t this a disbeliever? This is the attitude disbelievers adopt when doing their duties. Because they do not accept the truth, they love freedom and being dissolute and they love to be perfunctory. No matter how they are pruned, it is no use. Their ears will hear nothing from fellowship on the truth. There is nothing to do but remove and eliminate them. Because they do not accept the truth but are instead people who are averse to the truth, they are nonbelievers, and God will not save them. For people who love the truth, even when their corrupt disposition is revealed, they can accept being pruned, they can seek the truth, reflect on themselves, and come to know themselves, and they can know to repent. These are the people whom God wants to save. When someone does not love the truth, it is hard for them to accept the truth. What is the greatest danger of this inability to accept the truth? It is betrayal of God. Those who do not accept the truth are the most likely to betray God, and they may betray God at any time or place. They can betray God when a minor thing does not go their way. They can betray God because they cannot accept being pruned one time. When confronted with a disaster, they are even more likely to complain and betray God. No matter what, those who do not love or accept the truth are in the most danger. Whether someone can be saved depends on the extent to which they love the truth and positive things as well as whether they can accept the truth and practice the truth. Use the requirements of the truth to measure your true stature, to discern yourself, and to know the truth of your own corruption and recognize what your nature actually is. In one respect, such discernment helps you to know yourself and be able to attain true repentance. In another respect, it allows you to know God and understand His intentions. The inability to accept the truth is a manifestation of rebellion and resistance to God. A clear understanding of this problem will help you walk the path of salvation. When someone truly loves the truth, they can have a heart with a tremendous desire for God, a sincere heart, and the drive to practice the truth and submit to God. Possessing real strength, they are able to pay the price, devote their energy and time, forsake their personal benefits, and let go of all entanglements of the flesh, clearing the way for the practice of God’s words, the practice of the truth, and entry into the reality of the word of God. If, in order to enter into the reality of God’s word, you can let go of your own notions, let go of the interests of your own flesh, reputation, status, fame, and the enjoyments of the flesh—if you can let go of all such things, you will then enter more and more into the truth reality. Whatever difficulties and troubles you have will no longer be problems—they will be easily solved—and you will easily enter into the reality of God’s words. To enter into the truth reality, a sincere heart and a heart with a tremendous desire for God are the two indispensable conditions. If you only have a sincere heart, but are always cowardly, lack a tremendous desire for God, and shrink back when you encounter difficulties, this is not enough. If you only have a tremendous desire for God in your heart, and you are a bit impulsive, and you just have this aspiration, but you lack a sincere heart when things happen to you, and you shrink back, and choose your own interests, this is also not enough. You need both a sincere heart and a heart with a tremendous desire for God. The level of the sincerity of your heart and the strength of your tremendous desire for God determines the power of your drive to practice the truth. If you do not have a sincere heart and your heart does not have a tremendous desire for God, you will not be able to understand God’s words and will not have the drive to practice the truth. Like this, you cannot enter into the truth reality and it will be difficult for you to attain salvation.
Many people don’t know clearly what it means to be saved. Some people believe that if they have believed in God for a long time, then they are likely to be saved. Some people think that if they understand a lot of spiritual doctrines, then they are likely to be saved, or some think that leaders and workers will certainly be saved. These are all human notions and imaginings. The key thing is that people must understand what salvation means. To be saved primarily means to be freed from sin, freed from Satan’s influence, and genuinely turn to God and submit to God. What must you possess to be free from sin and from Satan’s influence? The truth. If people hope to obtain the truth, they must be equipped with many of God’s words, they must be able to experience and practice them, so that they may understand the truth and enter into reality. Only then can they be saved. Whether or not one can be saved has nothing to do with how long they have believed in God, how much knowledge they have, whether they possess gifts or strengths, or how much they suffer. The only thing that has a direct relationship to salvation is whether or not a person can obtain the truth. So today, how many truths have you genuinely understood? And how many of God’s words have become your life? Of all of God’s requirements, into which have you achieved entry? During your years of belief in God, how much have you entered into the reality of God’s word? If you don’t know, or if you have not achieved entry into the reality of any of God’s words, then frankly, you have no hope of salvation. You cannot possibly be saved. It doesn’t matter if you possess a high degree of knowledge, or if you have believed in God for a long time, have a good appearance, can speak well, and have been a leader or worker for several years. If you don’t pursue the truth and do not properly practice and experience God’s words, and you lack real experiential testimony, then there is no hope for you to be saved. I don’t care what you look like, how much scientific knowledge you have, how much you have suffered, or how great price you have paid. I tell you this: If you do not accept the truth and never enter the reality of God’s words, you cannot be saved. This is for certain. If you tell Me how much you have entered the reality of the words of God, then I will tell you how much hope you have of salvation. Now that I have told you of the criteria for measuring this, you should be able to measure it on your own. What fact do these words tell you? God used words to create the world, He used words to accomplish every manner of fact, to accomplish all the facts that God wished to be done, and God used words to carry out two stages of His work. Today, God is doing the third stage of His work, and in this stage of work, God has spoken more words than in any other stage. This is the time when God has spoken the most in His work throughout all the history of humankind. That God could use words to create the world, to accomplish all facts, to bring all facts from nothing into existence, and existence into nothing—this is the authority of God’s words, and ultimately, God shall also use words to accomplish the fact of humankind’s salvation. Today, you can all see this fact, during the last days God has done no work that is not connected to His words, He has spoken throughout, used words throughout to guide man unto today. Of course, while speaking, God has also used words to preserve His relationship with those who follow Him, He has used words to guide them, and these words are of the utmost importance for those who wish to be saved, or whom God wishes to save, God shall use these words to accomplish the fact of humankind’s salvation. Evidently, whether viewed in terms of their content or number, no matter what kind of words they are, and no matter which portion of God’s words they are, they are of the utmost importance to each of those who wish to be saved. God is using these words to achieve the ultimate effect of His six-thousand-year management plan. To humankind—whether to the humankind of today or the future—they are of the utmost importance. Such is the attitude of God, such is the aim and significance of His words. So what should humankind do? Humankind should cooperate in God’s words and work, not ignore them. But such is not the way of some people’s faith in God: No matter what God says, it is as if His words have nothing to do with them. They still pursue what they want to, do what they want to, and do not seek the truth on the basis of God’s words. This is not experiencing the work of God. There are others who pay no attention no matter what God says, who have but a single conviction in their hearts: “I will do whatever God asks, if God tells me to go west, I’ll go west, if He tells me to go east, I’ll go east, if He tells me to die, I will let Him see me die.” But there’s just one thing: They do not take in the words of God. They think to themselves, “There are so many of God’s words, they should be a little more straightforward, and they should tell me exactly what to do. I am able to submit to God in my heart.” No matter how many words God speaks, such people ultimately remain incapable of understanding the truth, nor can they talk of their experiences and knowledge. They are like a layman who lacks spiritual understanding. Do you think such people are beloved of God? Does God wish to be merciful toward such people? (No.) He certainly does not. God does not like such people. God says, “I have spoken untold thousands of words. How is it that, like someone blind or deaf, you have neither seen nor heard them? What, exactly, are you thinking in your heart? I see you as nothing more than someone who is obsessed with chasing after blessings and the beautiful destination—you are chasing after the same goals as Paul. If you do not want to listen to My words, if you do not wish to follow My way, then why do you believe in God? You are not chasing after salvation, you are chasing after the beautiful destination and the desire for blessings. And since this is what you are plotting, what is most suitable for you is being a laborer.” In fact, being a loyal laborer is also one manifestation of submission to God, but this is the minimum standard. Remaining as a loyal laborer is much better than being plunged into perdition and destruction like a nonbeliever. In particular, the house of God has a need for laborers, and being able to labor for God also counts as a blessing. This is far better—incomparably better—than being lackeys of the devil kings. However, laboring for God is not wholly satisfactory to God, because God’s work of judgment is in order to save, cleanse, and perfect people. If people are content with merely laboring for God, this is not the aim that God wishes to achieve by working in people, nor is it the effect that God wishes to see. But people burn with desire, they are foolish and blind: They are bewitched, consumed, by some petty profit, and dismiss the precious words of life uttered by God. They can’t even treat them seriously, let alone hold them dear. Not reading God’s words or cherishing the truth: is this smart or stupid? Can people achieve salvation this way? People should understand all this. They only have hope of salvation if they put aside their notions and imaginings and focus on pursuing the truth.
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