People will not be able to feel God’s loveliness if they listen only to the feelings of their conscience. If they rely solely on their conscience, their love for God will be feeble. If you only speak of repaying God’s grace and love, you will not have any drive in your love for Him; loving Him based upon the feelings of your conscience is a passive approach. Why do I say that it is a passive approach? This is a practical issue. What kind of love is your love for God? Is it not just fooling God and going through the motions for Him? Most people believe that since there is no reward for loving God and one will be chastised all the same for not loving Him, then overall, just not sinning is good enough. So loving God and repaying His love based on the feelings of one’s conscience is a passive approach, and it is not love for God that comes spontaneously from one’s heart. Love for God should be a genuine feeling from deep in a person’s heart. Some people say: “I myself am willing to seek after God and to follow Him. Now even if God wants to abandon me, I will still follow Him. Whether He wants me or not, I will still love Him, and in the end, I must gain Him. I offer up my heart to God, and no matter what He does, I will follow Him for my entire life. No matter what, I must love God and I must gain Him; I will not rest until I have gained Him.” Do you have this kind of resolve?

The path of believing in God is one and the same as the path of loving Him. If you believe in Him you must love Him; however, loving Him does not only refer to repaying His love or loving Him based on the feelings of your conscience—it is a pure love for God. Sometimes people are unable to feel God’s love based on their conscience alone. Why did I always say: “May the Spirit of God move our spirits”? Why did I not speak of moving people’s conscience to love God? It is because people’s conscience cannot feel God’s loveliness. If you are not convinced by these words, try to use your conscience to feel His love. You may have some drive in the moment, but it will soon disappear. If you only feel God’s loveliness with your conscience, you will be driven while you pray, but soon after the drive will fade and disappear. Why is that? If you only use your conscience, you will be unable to rouse your love for God; when you really feel God’s loveliness in your heart, your spirit will be moved by Him, and it is only at this time that your conscience will be able to play its original role. That is to say that when God moves man’s spirit and when man has knowledge and is encouraged in his heart, that is, when he has gained experience, only then will he be able to love God effectively with his conscience. Loving God with your conscience is not wrong—this is the lowest degree of love for God. Loving by “just barely doing justice to God’s grace” simply will not impel man to enter in proactively. When people obtain some of the work of the Holy Spirit, that is, when they see and feel God’s love in their practical experience, when they have some knowledge of God and truly see that God is so worthy of mankind’s love and how lovely He is, only then are they able to genuinely love God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Genuine Love for God Is Spontaneous

The Path of Belief in God Is the Path of Loving Him

I

The path of belief in God is the path of loving Him. If you believe in God, you must have love for Him. What loving God means is not merely to repay God’s love, nor to love Him by conscience, but to have pure love for God. Conscience won’t rouse love for God. When you feel His loveliness, your spirit is touched by God, your conscience will play its role. Genuine love for God comes from deep within the heart. It’s love that exists upon man’s true knowledge of God.

II

When man’s spirit’s moved by God, when knowledge in their hearts is gained, then they can love God with conscience after experience is gained. Loving God with one’s conscience is not wrong, but it’s low love, it just does God’s grace justice, but can’t impel man’s entry. Genuine love for God comes from deep within the heart. It’s love that exists upon man’s true knowledge of God.

III

When people get Spirit’s work, when they see and taste God’s love, when they have knowledge of God, then He can truly be loved. When they see God is worthy, so worthy of mankind’s love, seeing how lovely He is, then God they can truly love. Genuine love for God comes from deep within the heart. It’s love that exists upon man’s true knowledge of God.

IV

Those who don’t comprehend God, they can only love God based on their notions, what they like; that love is not real, heart based. Once someone understands God, it shows their heart’s turned to God. The love that’s in their heart, it’s real, spontaneous. Only that kind of person is one with God in their heart. Genuine love for God comes from deep within the heart. It’s love that exists upon man’s true knowledge of God.

Adapted from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Genuine Love for God Is Spontaneous