Only Those Who Understand the Truth Have Spiritual Understanding (Part One)

We will begin by fellowshipping on the ways in which people who do not have spiritual understanding make themselves known. What stands out most about them? It is that no matter how many years they believe in God, or how they appear to pursue the truth, their lives never grow and they have absolutely no path of practice for life entry. People who do not have spiritual understanding do not reflect on and try to know themselves no matter what corrupt disposition they reveal. In fact, they don’t even know what a corrupt disposition is. They are not aware of the disposition which they reveal and display, no matter how arrogant it is. No matter how much they lie and engage in deceit, they do not have the slightest sense of it. No matter how much they rebel against God and resist Him, they do not know that this is a mistake. They are just like the unbelievers, acting as they please and doing evil without scruples, thinking they are in the right, and not accepting criticism or exhortation from anyone. Although they often listen to sermons and attend gatherings, they absolutely do not know what submission is, or what rebellion and opposition are, nor what it is to reject the orchestrations and arrangements of God. They do not know of the goodness that stems from human intentions, or what it is to practice in accordance with the truth and submit to the sovereignty and arrangements of God. They know nothing of these nuanced differences. They do not know if they have been loyal or have been perfunctory in performing their duty, or what corrupt dispositions they have revealed and what their intentions are, or whether the path they walk is the right one. They do not know if the perspective of their practice is correct, or what kinds of behavior are beloved or loathed by God. They know none of these things. People who have no spiritual understanding at all do not understand spiritual matters in life. They just stick to reading God’s words and leading a normal spiritual life. When performing their duty, they do not loaf or cause trouble, nor do they deliberately do things that cause disruptions or disturbances. They do as they are told and stick by simple regulations. But when it comes to details, to the states involved in life entry, to various perspectives and attitudes, they have a complete disregard. When you fellowship truths that relate to resolving notions, they think they don’t have any, that all their notions have already been resolved and what you are fellowshipping has nothing to do with them. They do not know what the notions of which you speak refer to, or what truth reality there is in what you say. When you speak of knowing oneself, they say, “Man is rebellious and arrogant, isn’t he? Well, if he simply weren’t rebellious, wouldn’t that be enough? When an issue befalls him, if he didn’t show off, if he were a bit more modest and weren’t pompous—wouldn’t that be enough?” When you speak of submission, they say, “What’s so important about submission? Just don’t do anything evil. What’s so difficult about that?” When you talk about rebelling against the flesh, disciplining one’s body, casting off corruption, and practicing the truth, they say, “There’s no need for rebelling against the flesh or practicing the truth; I’ll just be a good person.” That’s how simple their thinking is. Can such a person ultimately obtain the truth? (No.) What is their attitude toward the truth? (They don’t recognize God’s words as the truth, so they don’t accept them, thinking that they don’t have the corrupt disposition that God’s words expose.) That’s right, they think, “I don’t have much of man’s corrupt disposition that God exposes, and even if I did have any corrupt disposition it would be very minor, just some transitory thoughts, no big deal. Isn’t this just a requirement to be submissive? I’ll listen to whatever you say, and I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. Isn’t that submission?” Is it that simple? Some people are so simple-minded that when they see someone who is being negative, they say, “Just love God, why are you crying, why are you being negative?” These people do not have spiritual understanding. What does it mean to lack spiritual understanding? It means that, no matter what God says or what truths He speaks, these people just see these things as theories. They do not understand the substance of these issues, nor do they understand what problems God’s fellowship of these truths is meant to solve. They do not understand how these truths are related to people’s life entry and the road they are walking on, or how they are related to the corrupt dispositions that people reveal, or how they are related to people living out the human likeness and their attainment of salvation. They don’t understand any of these things. They are not clear and do not understand what these words of God, these truths, have to do with the revelation and expression of people’s corruption and their practice and entry. All they hear is “submission, loyalty” and “don’t be perfunctory, or disrupt and disturb.” In the end, they sum everything up in one sentence “I don’t remember anything else, but I know that I should do whatever God demands. I’m even willing to labor. What else is there to say?” They don’t know that apart from laboring, there are many corrupt things in people that need to be resolved, such as ambitions, desires, preferences, notions, imaginings, as well as people’s erroneous views and Satan’s philosophy for worldly dealings. God’s words demand that people resolve all of these things and replace them with the truth. His purpose in issuing these truths is to make you understand the truth and accept it into your heart, then go on to use them in real life to resolve your problems and difficulties, such that you make these truths your reality, and they are lived out and revealed in you. What you will then reveal will no longer be arrogance, ambition, desires, notions, imaginings, learnings, philosophies, or other such corrupt things, but the reality of the truth. People who have no spiritual understanding do not understand this. Having listened to years of sermons, they think, “Why is it that every sermon is more or less the same? Years of sermonizing about knowing oneself—isn’t it just a matter of recognizing one’s vital weaknesses and corruption?” Others say today’s sermons are deeper and more detailed than before, but those without spiritual understanding fail to notice that. This is the sign of such a person. Some people are of a high enough caliber but do not pursue the truth, so they will never achieve spiritual understanding. Other people are too low in caliber to understand the truth, so the more they hear about the details of each truth, the more confused they become, without ever having a proper path of practice. Regardless of how many years these low-caliber people keep their faith, they are only able to abide by the regulations or put in a bit of effort, and those of them with a bit of conscience and reason may have some loyalty when performing their duties. They avoid being perfunctory, guarantee that they won’t commit obvious sins, and also prepare some good deeds. With some things, they’re capable of a simple sort of submission, doing what they are asked to do and letting go of what they aren’t, accepting some small disciplines, and, at the very least, doing things according to the standard of their conscience. They do not offend God directly and don’t do things which clearly resist God, but they aren’t able to achieve deeper submission. Much less are they up to things like the trials and testimonies of Job. They do not understand the words and testimonies of Job. They do not know what the words, “God gave, and God has taken away,” really mean, and they are definitely unable to see that what happened to Job was a result of God’s deprivation. If they come to face such a trial, they will surely argue with God and complain a lot, for these people do not understand the truth at all. A person who truly understands the truth can see clearly people’s corrupt states that God exposes. They can see more or less clearly what God has done, can understand whatever issues they face correctly, and do not indiscriminately talk about, determine, or define what they do not understand. People who truly understand the truth can discern the difference between truth and falsehood, and can discern whether a person’s state is normal or not. Then, they can understand their own revelations of corruption within reality and within the context of real life, and can accept the truth to resolve their own corrupt disposition. They can understand God’s intentions in the environment that He has set up, and they can apply the truth to solve real problems in accordance with God’s words. This is what a person who has spiritual understanding can achieve.

What is the degree of a person’s life entry related to? It is related to the degree to which a person understands the truth. What does the degree to which a person understands the truth refer to? What is understanding the truth? It is knowing which aspect of reality God’s words are referring to, what problems in people they are aiming to solve, which aspect of people’s corrupt disposition they are addressing, what the principles of this aspect of the truth are, what the relationship between this and other truths is, and what the standards of God’s requirements are for this aspect of the truth. To understand all this is to understand the truth. For example, to understand the truth of submission, you first have to understand what submission is, how to truly be submissive and what standard of submission God requires of people. This is the reality of submission, the truth of submission. It is not just about understanding the concept, definition, and theory of submission, but also about understanding the principles of practicing submission; knowing how to apply these principles; knowing what is in line with the truth principles and what violates them when applying them; and being able to discern between correct practice and erroneous ways of doing things. This is what can prove that you really understand the truth. If you can apply this aspect of the truth in yourself, you will be able to live out and fulfill these truths, and then you will be able to measure others by these truths; if you achieve these results, you will have gained the reality of entering into this aspect of the truth, and then you will be a person who has spiritual understanding. Whether a person has spiritual understanding is not determined by how fast they comprehend the truth, but, rather, whether or not they understand God’s words. If it seems that you understand God’s words at the moment you hear them, but then you don’t understand them when faced with a problem, then you do not have spiritual understanding. However, if you feel that you understand them at the time, though not completely, and then, after some period of experience, when you are faced with a problem, you see through it and can understand this aspect of the truth, then you have spiritual understanding. This understanding doesn’t relate to how much a person understands in literal or doctrinal terms—it has to do with a person’s caliber, as well as their pursuit and the path they take. An antichrist may appear to have some brains and gifts, and they can speak well, but they don’t know anything about the spiritual matters in life. They can imitate some of the original words from a sermon as soon as they’ve finished listening to it and can grasp the key points, and people might think that they have understood. However, the things they say are incompatible with the situations they face, they cannot integrate them or apply the things they talk about. In fact, listening to the words which they fellowship, it seems as if they understand the relevant aspect of the truth and can grasp the principles, so they should know how to deal with things. However, when faced with an issue, they do not practice the truth, but rather trot out another theoretical statement. This is self-contradictory, and it proves that they do not understand the truth, and that the things they preach are all just doctrine and theory. You hear them preaching doctrine as though they were quite lucid about it, but in fact they do not have spiritual understanding. They do not understand the truth or pursue the truth. For example, when they are in a difficult situation and become negative and you fellowship the truth with them, they say, “Don’t fellowship with me, I know everything.” In fact, they don’t know. If they really did know, then they wouldn’t be so negative and unreasonable. When you hear them preach their unreasonable and false logic, you know that they do not understand anything about the truth and that they do not have spiritual understanding. Once they are faced with something that does not fit in with their notions, they complain against God, misunderstand God, and even spread their notions. By listening to what they preach and those things which they spread, and by looking at what is in their hearts, you know that they do not understand the truth at all. Now, by discerning whether or not people have spiritual understanding, it has been revealed that most people do not understand the truth. They are able to preach words and doctrines very well most of the time. In particular, those people who have believed in God for many years and love to preach words and doctrines feel that they have more capital. However, it is revealed that they do not have spiritual understanding at all and that they are just useless people. They are not the slightest bit useful to the house of God. How can this kind of person achieve salvation?

What exactly does it mean to lack spiritual understanding? In short, it means not being able to understand the spiritual matters in life, not being able to understand things of the spiritual realm, and therefore not being able to understand the truth, naturally. If you observe those who lack spiritual understanding speaking and expressing their views, you will discover that they do not understand the truth. Some people can speak well and it seems as if they believe in God with great vigor and faith, so why do they lack spiritual understanding? You can see that they always do their duty with a lot of energy. They are always enthusiastic, are seldom negative, and they are able to suffer and pay the price. However, they do not understand the truth and have no principles when they do things. These are people who do not have spiritual understanding. People who have spiritual understanding do things according to principles. Whether by virtue of their conscience or the truth they understand, when they are faced with an issue, they know how it should be managed according to principles. They do not do things blindly or abide by regulations. These are the obvious characteristics of people who have spiritual understanding. However, those who lack spiritual understanding do not have the truth principles in the things they do. Most of the time they just apply regulations blindly. Sometimes they rely on their experience, sometimes on their gift, and some of them rely on their conscience, enthusiasm or natural goodness. Whatever someone has spiritual understanding about, that is what they are smart and wise about. They know to seek the truth, and they know who speaks in accordance with the principles. That’s someone who has the greatest spiritual understanding. If they can practice the truth after they have gained an understanding of it, then they have the hope of receiving salvation from God. Why is it said that some people who have believed in God for many years are still laboring? This is because they don’t understand the truth. There are two main reasons for not understanding the truth. The first is that people lack spiritual understanding, which makes it impossible for them to understand the truth. The second is that they are averse to the truth and don’t love the truth, so they can’t understand the truth. There are many people who believe in God and do things out of enthusiasm, goodwill, or experience. They hold on to these things as the truth, do a lot of good things and they are able to continue doing this for their whole lives. But can they do things in this way and reach an understanding of the truth? Absolutely not. Even if they do a lifetime of good things, they will not be able to understand the truth. So, surely a person who does not understand the truth, but can do many good things, is a good person, right? This is not certain, because the most obvious consequence of not understanding the truth is that people can do evil and resist God, and they can follow Satan and evil spirits in judging and condemning God, as well as resisting God’s work. This is because people who do not understand the truth are most easily misled and used by Satan. Some who do not understand the truth may do a lot of good things yet also be capable of doing evil and resisting God. Therefore, doing good things for your whole life doesn’t necessarily make you a truly good person or mean you’re practicing the truth. You have to look at the nature of those good things and determine whether or not they are in accordance with the truth and belong to the truth reality. If you can’t see these substantive issues clearly, and you still do things based on enthusiasm, goodwill, and experience, is this following God’s way? Absolutely not, this is relying entirely on one’s conscience as the standard as well as their good intentions to do things. It is doing things according to their notions and imaginings. Such people lack spiritual understanding. They are people who do not understand the truth. People who cannot see these issues clearly are also people who do not have spiritual understanding.

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