Daily Words of God: Knowing God | Excerpt 53

Accept God’s Tests, Overcome Satan’s Temptations, and Allow God to Gain Your Whole Being

During the work of God’s abiding provision and support of man, He tells the entirety of His will and requirements to man, and shows His deeds, disposition, and what He has and is to man. The objective is to equip man with stature, and to allow man to gain various truths from God while following Him—truths that are the weapons given to man by God with which to fight Satan. Thus equipped, man must face God’s tests. God has many means and avenues for testing man, but every one of them requires the “cooperation” of God’s enemy: Satan. This is to say, having given man the weapons with which to do battle with Satan, God hands man over to Satan and allows Satan to “test” man’s stature. If man can break out from Satan’s battle formations, if he can escape Satan’s encirclement and still live, then man will have passed the test. But if man fails to leave Satan’s battle formations, and submits to Satan, then he will not have passed the test. Whatever aspect of man God examines, the criteria for His examination are whether or not man stands firm in his testimony when attacked by Satan, and whether or not he has forsaken God and surrendered and submitted to Satan while ensnared by Satan. It may be said that whether or not man can be saved depends on whether he can overcome and defeat Satan, and whether or not he can gain freedom depends on whether he is able to lift up, on his own, the weapons given to him by God to overcome Satan’s bondage, making Satan completely abandon hope and leave him alone. If Satan abandons hope and relinquishes someone, this means that Satan will never again try to take this person from God, will never again accuse and interfere with this person, will never again wantonly torture or attack them; only someone such as this will truly have been gained by God. This is the entire process by which God gains people.

The Warning and Enlightenment Provided to Later Generations by Job’s Testimony

At the same time as understanding the process by which God completely gains someone, people will also understand the aims and significance of God’s consignment of Job to Satan. People are no longer disturbed by Job’s torment, and have a new appreciation of its significance. They no longer worry about whether they themselves will be subjected to the same temptation as Job, and no longer oppose or reject the coming of God’s trials. Job’s faith, obedience, and his testimony to overcoming Satan have been a source of huge help and encouragement to people. In Job, they see hope for their own salvation, and see that through faith, and obedience to and fear of God, it is entirely possible to defeat Satan, to prevail over Satan. They see that as long as they acquiesce to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and as long as they possess the determination and faith not to forsake God after having lost everything, then they can bring shame and defeat upon Satan, and they see that they need only possess the determination and perseverance to stand firm in their testimony—even if it means losing their lives—for Satan to be cowed and beat a hasty retreat. Job’s testimony is a warning to later generations, and this warning tells them that if they do not defeat Satan, then they will never be able to rid themselves of the accusations and interference of Satan, nor will they ever be able to escape the abuse and attacks of Satan. Job’s testimony has enlightened later generations. This enlightenment teaches people that only if they are perfect and upright will they be able to fear God and shun evil; it teaches them that only if they fear God and shun evil can they bear strong and resounding testimony to God; only if they bear strong and resounding testimony to God can they never be controlled by Satan and live under the guidance and protection of God—only then will they have been truly saved. Job’s personality and his life’s pursuit should be emulated by everyone who pursues salvation. That which he lived out during his whole life and his conduct during his trials is a precious treasure to all those who pursue the way of fearing God and shunning evil.

Job’s Testimony Brings Comfort to God

If I tell you now that Job is a lovely man, you may not be able to appreciate the meaning within these words, and may not be able to grasp the sentiment behind why I have spoken of all these things; but wait until the day when you have experienced trials the same as or akin to those of Job, when you have gone through adversity, when you have experienced trials personally arranged for you by God, when you give your all, and endure humiliation and hardship in order to prevail over Satan and bear testimony to God amid temptations—then you will be able to appreciate the meaning of these words I speak. At that time, you will feel that you are far inferior to Job, you will feel how lovely Job is, and that he is worthy of emulation; when that time comes, you will realize how important those classic words spoken by Job are for one who is corrupt and who lives in these times, and you will realize how difficult it is for the people of today to achieve what was achieved by Job. When you feel it is difficult, you will appreciate how anxious and worried is God’s heart, you will appreciate how high is the price paid by God for gaining such people, and how precious is that which God does and expends for mankind. Now that you have heard these words, do you have an accurate understanding and correct assessment of Job? In your eyes, was Job a truly perfect and upright man who feared God and shunned evil? I believe that most people will most certainly say yes. For the facts of what Job acted and revealed are undeniable by any man or Satan. They are the most powerful proof of Job’s triumph over Satan. This proof was produced in Job, and was the first testimony received by God. Thus, when Job triumphed in the temptations of Satan and bore testimony to God, God saw hope in Job, and His heart was comforted by Job. Since the time of creation until the time of Job, this was the first time that God truly experienced what comfort was, and what it meant to be comforted by man. It was the first time that He had seen, and gained, true testimony that was borne for Him.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II

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