However much understanding of God there is in people’s hearts determines how much of a position He holds in their hearts. However great the degree of knowledge of God is in their hearts is how great His status is in their hearts. If the God that you know is empty and vague, then the God in your heart is also empty and vague. If the God that you know is limited within your own scope, then he is a very small God—that God is not connected to the true God and has nothing to do with Him. Thus, knowing God’s actual actions, knowing the reality of God and His omnipotence, knowing the true identity of God Himself, knowing what He has and is, knowing what He has demonstrated among all things—these are very important to every single person who pursues knowledge of God. These are inseparable from every person’s life, from every person’s practical life of pursuit of the truth. If you limit your understanding of God to just words, if you limit it to your own little experiences, God’s grace that you count, or your little testimonies to God, then I say that your God absolutely is not the true God. He absolutely is not the true God Himself, and it can also be said that the God you believe in is not God. This is because the God that I am speaking of is the One that rules over everything, that walks among everything, that manages everything. He is the One that holds the fate of all of mankind—the One that holds the fate of everything. The work and actions of the God that I am talking about are not just limited to a small portion of people. That is, it’s not limited to just the people who currently follow Him. His actions are demonstrated among all things, in the survival of all things, and in the laws of change of all things.

If you cannot see or recognize any actions of God among all things, then you cannot bear witness to any of His actions. If you cannot bear any witness for God, if you continue to speak of the small so-called God that you know, that God who is limited to your own ideas, and is within your narrow mind, if you continue to speak of that kind of God, then God will never praise your faith. When you bear witness for God, if you only use how you enjoy God’s grace, accept God’s discipline and His chastening, and enjoy His blessings in your witness for Him, that is hugely inadequate, and is far from satisfying Him. If you want to bear witness for God in a way that is in line with His will, bear witness for the true God Himself, then you must see what God has and is from His actions. You must see God’s authority from His control of everything, and see the truth of how He provides for all of mankind. If you only acknowledge that your daily food and drink and your necessities in life come from God, but you don’t see the truth that God provides for all of mankind by means of all things, that He leads all of mankind by means of His rule of all things, then you will never be able to bear witness for God. Now you understand all of this, right? What’s My purpose in saying all of this? It’s so that you don’t take this lightly, so that you don’t believe that these topics I’ve spoken about are irrelevant to your own personal entry into life, and so that you don’t take these topics as just a type of knowledge or doctrine. If you listen to this with that kind of attitude, you won’t gain a single thing. You will lose this great opportunity to know God. So you understand now?

What is My goal in talking about all of these things? My goal is to have people know God, to have people understand God’s practical actions. Once you understand God and you know His actions, only then do you have the opportunity or the possibility to know Him. If, for example, you want to understand a person, how would you understand them? Would it be through looking at their outward appearance? Would it be through looking at what they wear, how they dress up? Would it be through looking at how they walk? Would it be through looking at the scope of their knowledge? It certainly wouldn’t be. So how do you understand a person? You make a judgment through a person’s thoughts, through their speech and behavior, through what they express and what they reveal. This is how you know a person, how you understand a person. Likewise, if you want to know God, if you want to understand His practical side, His true side, you must know Him through His actions and through every single practical thing that He does. This is the best way, and it is the only way.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique IX