Item Five: Maintain an Up-to-date Grasp and Understanding of the Status and Progress of Each Item of Work, and Be Able to Promptly Resolve Problems, Correct Deviations, and Remedy Flaws in the Work So That It Will Progress Smoothly

Today’s fellowship is on the fifth responsibility of leaders and workers: “Maintain an up-to-date grasp and understanding of the status and progress of each item of work, and be able to promptly resolve problems, correct deviations, and remedy flaws in the work so that it will progress smoothly.” We will focus on this responsibility to dissect the various manifestations of false leaders, to see if false leaders fulfill their responsibilities in this work, and whether they hold fast to their duties and carry out work well.

False Leaders Indulge in Comfort and Do Not Engage Deeply With the Grassroots to Understand the Work

The fifth responsibility of leaders and workers first mentions “maintaining an up-to-date grasp and understanding of the status and progress of each item of work.” What does “the status of each item of work” refer to? It refers to how the current state of a certain item of work is. What should leaders and workers understand here? For instance: What specific tasks personnel are doing, what activities they are busy with, whether these activities are necessary, whether they are key and important tasks, how efficient these personnel are, whether the work is progressing smoothly, whether the number of personnel matches the workload, whether everyone has been given ample tasks, whether there are any cases of having too many personnel for a certain task—where there are too many personnel for too little work, and most are people idle—or cases where the workload is too large but personnel too few, and the supervisor fails to direct effectively, leading to low work efficiency and slow progress. These are all situations that leaders and workers should understand. Additionally, while carrying out each item of work, whether anyone is causing disturbances or sabotage, whether anyone is holding back progress or undermining, whether there is any kind of interference or perfunctoriness happening—these are also things that leaders and workers should understand. So how do they gain an understanding of these issues? Some leaders might occasionally make a phone call to ask, “Are you guys busy right now?” Hearing the other party say they’re very busy, they might respond with, “Good, as long as you’re busy, I’m relieved.” What do you think of this way of working? What do you think of this question? Is this a crucial, necessary question to ask? This is characteristic of the work of false leaders—they’re just going through the motions. They are satisfied with doing a bit of superficial work to ease their conscience a bit but do not focus on doing real work, much less do they go to the grassroots, to each team, to understand the current status of the work. For instance, whether the personnel arrangements are suitable, how the work is being done, whether any problems have arisen—these real issues are not inquired into by false leaders, who instead find an unnoticed place to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves without enduring the harshness of wind or sun. They merely send letters or have someone inquire on their behalf every now and then, thinking that this constitutes doing their job. Even more, brothers and sisters might not see them for ten days or a half month. When the brothers and sisters are asked, “What is your leader busy with? Are they doing concrete work? Are they providing you with guidance and solving problems?” they respond, “Don’t even mention it, we haven’t seen our leader for a month. Since the last gathering they held for us, they have never come by again, and now we have many problems with no one to help us resolve them. There’s no other way; the supervisor of our group and our brothers and sisters have to come together to pray and seek principles, to discuss and cooperate together on the work. The leader is not effective here; we are leaderless now.” How well is this leader doing their work? The Above asks this leader, “After the last movie was finished, did you receive any new scripts? What are you filming now? How is the work progressing?” The leader replies, “I don’t know. After the last movie, I had one gathering with them, after which they were all energized, were not negative, and did not have any difficulties. We haven’t met since then. If you want to know their current situation, I can call and ask for you.” “Why didn’t you call to understand the situation earlier?” “Because I’ve been too busy, attending gatherings everywhere. It’s not their turn yet. I will only be able to understand the situation when I gather with them next time.” This is their attitude toward church work. The Above then says, “You aren’t aware of the current situation or the problems that exist in the film production work, so how about the progress of the gospel work? Which country’s gospel work has spread the best, most ideally? Which country’s people have relatively good caliber and comprehend quickly? Which country has better church life?” “Ah, I was only focused on gatherings, I forgot to ask about these things.” “Then, in the gospel team, how many people are able to testify? How many people are being cultivated to testify? Who is responsible for and follows up on the church work and church life in which country? Who waters and shepherds? Have new church members from various countries started living church life? Have their notions and imaginings been completely resolved? How many people have rooted themselves in the true way, no longer being misled by religious people? After believing in God for one or two years, how many can do their duties? Do you understand and grasp these matters? When problems arise in the work, who can solve them? In the gospel team, which group or individuals are responsible for their work and have actual results, do you know?” “I don’t know. If you want to know, I can ask for you. If you’re not in a hurry, I’ll ask when I have time; I’m still busy!” Has this leader done any concrete work? (No.) They say “I don’t know” to everything; they only ask about things at the moment they’re questioned, so what are they busy with? No matter which team they go to for gatherings or to check on the work, they fail to identify the problems in the work and they don’t know how to solve them. If they cannot see through the states and character of various people at once, then shouldn’t they at least follow up on, understand, and grasp the issues that exist in the work, what work is currently being done, and to what stage it has progressed? However, false leaders can’t even do this much; are they not blind? Even if they go to various teams within the church to follow up and check on the work, they don’t understand the actual situation at all, can’t identify key problems, and even if they spot some problems, they cannot solve them.

There was a film production team that was preparing to shoot a very challenging movie of a type which they had never attempted before. Whether they were suitable to take on this movie script, whether the director and the entire crew had the capability to complete this work—their leader was unaware of these situations. They merely said, “You’ve taken on a new script. Go ahead and shoot it, then. I’ll support you and follow up with you. Do your best, and when difficulties arise, pray to God and solve them according to God’s words.” And then they left. This leader couldn’t see or identify any of the existing difficulties; can work be done well like this? After the film production team received this script, the director and team members would often analyze the plot and discuss costumes and framing, but had no idea how to shoot the movie; they were unable to officially start production. Isn’t this the current state? Aren’t these the existing problems? Aren’t these issues that the leader should resolve? The leader spent every day in gatherings, no real problems were solved after many days of gatherings, and filming still could not proceed normally. Did the leader have any effect? (No.) They only shouted slogans to boost morale: “We can’t sit idle, we can’t just freeload off God’s house!” They even lectured people: “You people have no conscience, freeloading off God’s house without any sense of feeling whatsoever—have you no shame?” After they said this, everyone’s conscience felt a bit reproached: “Yeah, the work progresses so slowly, and we still get our three meals a day like this—isn’t this freeloading? We haven’t really done any work. Then, who will solve these problems that arise in the work? We can’t solve them so we ask the leader, but the leader just tells us to pray diligently, read God’s words, and cooperate harmoniously, without fellowshipping how these problems should be solved.” The leader held gatherings on site every day, but these problems just couldn’t be resolved. Over time, some people’s faith grew cold, and their states became despondent because they didn’t see a way forward and didn’t know how to proceed with the filming. They placed their last hope in the leader, hoping they could solve some actual problems, but alas, this leader was as good as blind, neither learning the profession nor fellowshipping, discussing, or seeking with those who understood it. They would frequently hold a book of God’s words and say, “I am reading God’s words for spiritual devotion. I am equipping myself with the truth. Nobody disturb me, I’m busy!” Eventually, more and more problems accumulated, leading to the work being in a semi-paralyzed state, yet the false leader still thought they were doing great work. Why was that? They believed that since they had held gatherings, inquired about the work situation, identified problems, shared God’s words, pointed out people’s states, and everyone had held themselves up for comparison with these states and resolved to do their duty well, then their responsibility as a leader had been fulfilled, and they had done all that could be expected of them—if the specific tasks related to professional aspects couldn’t be managed well, that was not the leader’s concern. What kind of leader is this? The church work had fallen into a semi-paralyzed state, yet they were not anxious or distressed at all. If the Above did not inquire or urge, they would just keep dragging on, never mentioning what was going on beneath them, solving no problems. Had such a leader fulfilled their leadership responsibilities? (No.) So, what did they talk about all day in gatherings? They prattled idly, merely preaching doctrines and shouting slogans. The leader didn’t resolve real problems in the work, didn’t resolve people’s perfunctory and negative states, and didn’t know how to resolve issues in people’s work according to the truth principles. As a result, the entire project ground to a halt and no progress could be seen over a long period. Yet the leader was not at all anxious. Isn’t this a manifestation of false leaders not doing real work? What is the essence of this manifestation of false leaders? Isn’t this a serious dereliction of duty? To be gravely derelict in one’s work, failing to fulfill one’s responsibilities—this is precisely what false leaders do. They stay on site just to go through the motions, not solving real problems. They stay on site only to cheat people; without doing any real work, even if they did stay there all the time, it would accomplish nothing. Various problems arise in the work and among professional aspects, some of which they can solve but don’t—this is already a serious dereliction of duty. Moreover, they are blind both in their eyes and their minds: Sometimes when they do discover problems, they can’t see through to their essence. They can’t resolve them, but they pretend to be able to handle them, barely holding on while flat-out refusing to fellowship or consult with those who do understand the truth, and not reporting to or seeking from the Above either. Why is this? Are they afraid of being pruned? Afraid that the Above will know the truth about them and dismiss them? Isn’t this focusing on status without upholding the work of God’s house in the slightest? With this kind of mentality, how could one do their duty well?

No matter what important work a leader or worker does, and what the nature of this work is, their number one priority is to understand and grasp how work is going on. They must be there in person to follow up on things and ask questions, getting their information first-hand. They must not simply rely on hearsay or listen to other people’s reports. Instead, they must observe with their own eyes the situation of the personnel and how work is progressing, and understand what difficulties there are, whether any areas are at odds with requirements of the Above, whether there are violations of principles, whether there exist any disturbances or disruptions, whether there is a lack of necessary equipment or related instructional materials regarding professional work—they must stay on top of all of this. No matter how many reports they listen to, or how much they glean from hearsay, neither of these beats paying a personal visit; it is more accurate and reliable for them to see things with their own eyes. Once they are familiar with all aspects of the situation, they will have a good idea of what’s going on. They especially must have a clear and accurate grasp of who is of good caliber and worthy of cultivation, as only this allows them to accurately cultivate and use people, which is crucial if leaders and workers are to do their work well. Leaders and workers should have a path and principles by which to cultivate and train people of good caliber. Furthermore, they should have a grasp and understanding of the various kinds of problems and difficulties that exist in church work, and know how to solve them, and they should also have their own ideas and suggestions for how work is to progress, or its future prospects. If they are able to speak with clarity about such things with their eyes closed, without any doubt or misgivings, then the work will be much easier to carry out. And by working in this way, a leader will be fulfilling their responsibilities, will they not? They must be well aware of how to resolve the abovementioned issues in the work, and they must often ponder these things. When they encounter difficulties, they must fellowship and discuss these things with everyone, seeking the truth in order to resolve the issues. By doing real work with both feet planted firmly on the ground in this way, there will be no difficulties that cannot be solved. Do false leaders know how to do this? (No.) False leaders only know to pretend and cheat people, acting like they understand things they don’t, unable to solve any actual problems and only busying themselves with useless matters. When asked what they have been busy with, they say, “Our living place was lacking a few cushions, and the film production team was short of a piece of fabric for costumes, so I went to buy some. Another time the kitchen ran out of ingredients, and the cook couldn’t leave, so I had to go out and buy some, and I picked up a few bags of flour on the way. All these things I had to do myself.” They really have been quite busy. Are they not neglecting their proper tasks? They don’t care at all or bear a burden at all when it comes to the work that falls within the scope of their responsibilities as leaders, seeking only to muddle through. The problem of their own caliber being quite poor and of them being blind in both eyes and mind is serious enough, yet they also bear no burden and indulge in comfort, frequently spending several days in some cozy spot. When someone has a problem and looks for them for a solution, they are nowhere to be found, and no one knows what they are really up to. They manage their own time. This week, they hold a gathering for one team one morning, take a rest in the afternoon, and then in the evening, they gather the people in charge of general affairs to discuss matters. The next week, they hold a gathering for those in charge of external affairs, casually asking, “Are there any difficulties? Have you read God’s word during this period? Have you been constrained or disturbed in your contacts with nonbelievers?” And after asking these few questions, they call it a wrap. In the blink of an eye, a month passes. What work have they done? Although they held gatherings for each team in turn, they knew nothing about the work situation of any team, nor did they learn or inquire about it, or much less join in the work or direct it in each team. They did not participate in, follow up on, or provide direction regarding the work, but there were a few things they did punctually: eating on time, sleeping on time, and holding gatherings on time. Their life is quite regular, they’re taking good care of themselves, but their work performance is not up to par.

Some leaders don’t fulfill the responsibilities of leaders and workers whatsoever, not doing the essential work of the church but instead focusing solely on some insignificant general affairs. They specialize in managing the kitchen, always asking, “What are we eating today? Do we have any eggs? How much meat is left? If we’re out, I’ll go buy some.” They consider the kitchen work extremely important, wandering into the kitchen for no reason, always thinking about eating more fish, more meat, enjoying more, eating food without any qualms whatsoever. While people in each team are busy working, focusing on doing their duties well, these leaders only focus on eating well, living a quite comfortable life. Since becoming a leader, not only have they been unconcerned with the church’s work and avoided any hard effort, but they have also taken care to keep themselves plump and rosy-cheeked. What is it they do every day? They are busy with some general affairs work, some trivial matters, not having done any real work well or solved any real problems. Yet they feel no remorse in their heart. All false leaders do not do the key work of the church, nor do they solve any real problems. Ever since becoming a leader, they think, “I just need to find a few people to do the specific work, and then I don’t need to do it myself.” They believe that once they’ve arranged supervisors for each item of work, they themselves have nothing left to do. They believe this is doing the work of being a leader, and they are then entitled to enjoy the benefits of their status. They do not participate in any real work, do not follow up or provide direction, and they do not conduct investigations or research to resolve problems. Do they fulfill the responsibilities of a leader? Can the church work be done well this way? When the Above asks them about how the work is going, they say, “The church work is all normal. Each item of work has a supervisor handling it.” If further questioned about whether there are any problems in the work, they respond, “I don’t know. There probably aren’t any problems!” This is the attitude of a false leader toward their work. As a leader, they show complete irresponsibility for the work assigned to them; it’s all delegated to others, with no follow-up, inquiries, or assistance in solving problems from their end—they just sit there like a hands-off taskmaster. Aren’t they being derelict in their duty? Aren’t they acting like an official? Not doing any specific work, not following up on the work, not solving real problems—isn’t this leader merely a piece of decoration? Aren’t they a false leader? This is the epitome of a false leader. A false leader’s work is just flapping their lips and issuing orders without actually participating in or following up on the work, nor seeking out or identifying problems within the work. Even when problems are identified, they don’t resolve them. They merely act as a hands-off taskmaster, thinking that constitutes doing work. And yet leading this way does nothing to disturb their peace of mind; they live comfortably every day, and are cheerful at all times. How is it that they are still able to wear a smile? I’ve discovered a fact: Such people are utterly shameless. They do no actual work as a leader, they just arrange a few people to do tasks and consider it done. You never see them at the workplace; they have no clue about the progress or the results of the church’s work, yet they still think they are competent and up to standard as leaders. This is the epitome of a false leader, doing no actual work whatsoever. False leaders have no burden for the church’s work, they don’t get worried or anxious no matter how many problems arise; they are satisfied with just doing some general affairs and then they think they have done actual work. No matter how the Above exposes false leaders, they don’t feel bad inside, nor do they see themselves in the exposure; they don’t have any self-reflection or repentance. Aren’t such people devoid of conscience and reason? Can someone who truly has conscience and reason treat church work this way? Most assuredly not.

Generally, people with even a bit of conscience and reason, upon hearing the exposure of the various manifestations of false leaders and holding themselves up for comparison with these descriptions, will be able to see, to a greater or lesser extent, that there is something of themselves in these descriptions. Their faces will flush, they will become restless, their hearts will be uneasy, feeling indebted to God, and they will secretly resolve: “Previously, I indulged in the comforts of the flesh, didn’t do my work well, didn’t fulfill my responsibilities, didn’t do real work, was ignorant when questioned, always wanted to shirk, and always pretended, fearing that once others saw what was really going on with me, my reputation and status would be lost, and the position as a leader which I held could not be maintained. Only now do I see that such behavior is shameful and cannot continue. I must be a bit more earnest in taking action, and put in the effort. If I carry on failing to do well, that would be inexcusable—my conscience would accuse me!” False leaders like this still possess some humanity and conscience; at the very least, their conscience is aware. After hearing My exposure, they see themselves in these words and feel troubled; they reflect: “I really haven’t done any real work, or solved any real problems. I don’t deserve God’s commission or the title of leader. What should I do, then? I must make amends; from now on, I must knuckle down and resolve real problems, participate in every specific task, avoid shirking, avoid pretending, and do things to the full extent of my capabilities. God scrutinizes people’s hearts and innermost thoughts, God knows everyone’s true measure; regardless of whether I do things well or poorly, doing it wholeheartedly is most important. If I cannot even do this, can I still be called human?” Being able to reflect on oneself in this manner is called having a conscience. People without a conscience, no matter how you expose them, do not go red in the face or feel their heart racing; they just continue doing whatever they want. Even if they see themselves in what God has exposed, they feel indifferent about it: “It’s not like I was mentioned by name,” they think. “Why should I be afraid? My caliber is good, I’m talented; God’s house can’t do without me! So what that I don’t do any real work? I don’t do it myself, but I get someone else to, so it gets done nonetheless, doesn’t it? At any rate, every task that you ask me to do, I get it done for you, no matter who I arrange to do it. My caliber is good, so I work smart. In the future, I will keep on muddling through and enjoying life as I wish.” No matter how I dissect or expose false leaders for not doing real work, the people in question remain the same, completely oblivious: “Let others think what they want, and see me as they want to see me—I just won’t do it!” Do such false leaders have a conscience? (No.) This is the fourth time we have fellowshipped on exposing the various manifestations of false leaders, and each time I expose such individuals, those with even a bit of conscience feel as if they’re sitting on pins and needles, feeling insecure for not doing their work well, and secretly resolve to quickly repent and make a turnaround. Meanwhile, those without a conscience are exceptionally shameless; they feel nothing whatsoever. Regardless of how I fellowship, they just go on living their days as usual, enjoying life as they wish. When you ask them, “Some people are responsible for gospel work, some for translation work, and others for film production work—what specific work are you responsible for?” they say: “Although I haven’t done any specific work, I oversee everything. I hold gatherings for them.” If you then ask them, “How many gatherings do you hold in a month?” they will reply: “At the very least, one large gathering a month, and a small one every fortnight.” And when you ask them, “Besides holding gatherings, what specific work have you done?” they will reply: “With gatherings keeping me so busy, what specific work can I do? Besides, the scope I manage is so broad, I have no time for specific work.” These false leaders feel that they are fully in the right—they make very steady and stable leaders! No matter how they are exposed and pruned, they are not upset about it in the slightest. If I were made to do a specific task, like cooking for five people, but I had only made enough food for four, I would feel uncomfortable about not having made enough, and I would feel guilty for not feeding everyone well. I would then think about how to make up for it, ensuring to calculate correctly next time so that everyone gets enough to eat. And if someone said the food was too salty, I would feel bad too. I would ask which dish was too salty, then ask others whether the seasoning was appropriate. Although it’s hard to please everyone, I must still try every means possible to do My part well. This is called fulfilling one’s responsibilities; this is the reason that people ought to possess. You always have to fulfill your responsibilities; no matter what the task is, you must participate in it yourself. If anyone offers a different opinion—regardless of who they are—and you realize you are in the wrong and feel bad after hearing it, then you must make corrections and put your heart into what you do in future, doing well even if it means enduring some hardship. False leaders don’t have this feeling, so they don’t endure any hardship at all. After hearing these facts about the exposure of false leaders, they feel nothing whatsoever, still enjoying their food, sleeping soundly, and living it up, with the same happy mood every day, and without the feeling of carrying a heavy burden on their shoulders, or the pang of guilt in their heart. What kind of people are these? Such people have a problem with their character: They lack conscience, they are devoid of reason, and they are of lowly character. Despite having exposed the various manifestations of false leaders for so long—both from a positive perspective, providing and fellowshipping, and from a negative perspective, exposing and dissecting them—a portion of false leaders still cannot recognize their own issues, nor do they ever intend to reflect and repent. If there weren’t any supervision and urging from the Above, they would still muddle along with their work as much as they could, without changing course at all. No matter how I expose them, they still sit there unruffled and completely oblivious. Aren’t they far too shameless? People of this type are not fit to be leaders or workers; they are of such lowly character that they know no shame! For normal people, even just hearing someone mention their shortcomings, flaws, or anything inappropriate or against principles regarding what they have done—never mind being specifically exposed—would be hard for them to bear, and they would feel upset and mortified, and would think about how to change and correct themselves. Meanwhile, these false leaders make a complete mess of their work and still live with a clear conscience, not feeling worried or anxious, and remaining completely oblivious no matter how they are exposed—they even find places to hide away and seek leisure, and are always nowhere to be seen. They truly know no shame!

A church leader must at least possess conscience and reason, and also understand some truths—only then can they feel a burden. What are the manifestations of feeling a burden? If they see some people being negative, some with distorted comprehension, some wasting the assets of God’s house, some doing their work perfunctorily, some not seeing to proper tasks when they do their duties, some always spouting high-sounding words but not doing real work…, finding that too many problems exist within the church and need to be resolved, seeing so much work undone, this makes them develop a sense of burden. Since becoming a leader, it feels like there’s a fire constantly burning inside them; if they discover a problem and can’t solve it, they become worried and anxious, unable to eat or sleep. During gatherings, when some people report problems in their work that the leader can’t see through and resolve immediately, the leader doesn’t give up; they feel that they must resolve this problem. After praying and seeking, and thinking it over for two days, once they know how to resolve it, they quickly resolve the issue. After resolving the issue, they promptly check other pieces of work and discover another issue with too many people involved in a piece of work that required a reduction in personnel. They then quickly call a gathering, get a clear picture of the situation, reduce personnel, and devise reasonable arrangements, and thus the problem is resolved. No matter which work they are inspecting, leaders who carry a burden will always be able to identify problems. For any problems which have to do with professional knowledge, or which go against principles, they will be able to identify them, inquire about them, and gain an understanding of them, and when they discover a problem, they resolve it promptly. Intelligent leaders and workers only resolve problems to do with the church’s work, professional knowledge, and truth principles. They do not pay small matters in daily life any heed. They look after every facet of the work of spreading the gospel which God commissioned. They ask about and inspect any problems which they are able to perceive or discover. If they are unable to solve the problem themselves at that moment, then they gather with other leaders and workers, fellowship with them, seek the truth principles, and think of ways to resolve it. If they encounter a big problem which they really cannot resolve, then they promptly seek from the Above, and allow the Above to handle it and resolve it. Leaders and workers such as this are people who are principled in their actions. No matter what problems there are, so long as they have seen them, they will not let them go; they insist on fully understanding these problems and then resolving them one by one. Even if they are not resolved thoroughly, it can be assured that these problems will not arise again. This is to do one’s duty with all one’s heart, strength, and mind, fully fulfilling one’s responsibilities. Those false leaders and workers who do not do real work or focus on solving real problems cannot discover problems in their sight and do not know what work should be done. As long as they see that the brothers and sisters are busy doing their duties, they are perfectly content, feeling that this is the result of their real work; they think that all aspects of work are quite good and that there isn’t much for them to personally do or any problems for them to solve, so they then focus on enjoying the benefits of their status. They always want to show off and boast about themselves among the brothers and sisters. Whenever they see the brothers and sisters, they say, “Be a good believer. Do your duty well. Don’t go through the motions. If you’re naughty or cause trouble, I’ll dismiss you!” They only know to assert their status and lecture people. During gatherings they always ask what problems are present in the work and ask if those under them have any difficulties, but when others express their problems and difficulties, they can’t resolve them. Despite this, they’re still happy, and still go about living with a clear conscience. If the brothers and sisters don’t bring up any difficulties or problems, they feel that they are doing their job very well, becoming complacent. They think asking about work is the job they were assigned to do, and when problems arise and the Above traces responsibility back to them, they are stupefied. Others lay out the difficulties and problems of the work before them, yet they still complain about why they don’t seek the truth to resolve them. Not resolving real problems themselves, they pass the buck to the supervisors below them, harshly reprimanding the ones doing the specific tasks. This reprimand helps them relieve their anger, and they even believe with a clear conscience that they are doing real work. They have never felt worried or anxious about not being able to discover or solve problems, nor been unable to eat or sleep well because of this—they have never suffered this kind of hardship.

Every time I visit a farm church, I solve some problems. Each time I go, it’s not because I’ve found some specific issue to address; it’s just having some free time to go around and see how the work of various teams in the church is going, and how the states of the people in each team are. I gather the supervisors for a talk, ask what work they’ve been doing during this period, and what problems there are, let them raise some issues, and then I fellowship with them about how to resolve these. When fellowshipping with them, I can also discover some new problems. One type of problem is those related to how leaders and workers do their work; another is problems in the work within the scope of their responsibilities. Additionally, I also help and guide them on how to do specific work, how to implement work, what work to do, and then follow up next time, asking them how the work assigned last time went. Such supervision, urging, and follow-up is necessary. Although this is not done with a lot of fanfare and shouting, using loudspeakers to make any announcements, these specific jobs and tasks are communicated and implemented through some leaders and workers who can do real work. Thus, the work of each team becomes orderly and progresses, work efficiency is improved, and the results are better. In the end, everyone in each team can hold fast to their own duty, knowing what they should do and how to do it. At the very least, everyone is performing their due duty, they all have tasks at hand, and what they do is done according to the requirements of God’s house and is also able to be done according to principles. Isn’t this achieving some results? Do false leaders know how to work in this way? False leaders would ponder: “So, this is how the Above carries out work: calling some people together for a chat, everyone taking notes in a little book, and after the notes are taken, the work of the Above is finished. If this is how work is carried out by the Above, then we will do it the same way.” Thus, false leaders imitate in this manner. They mimic the appearance, but in the end, they don’t do any real work at all, not implementing any of the tasks they were asked to do, just idling away time talking about nothing. Sometimes, I also go to the vegetable fields and greenhouses to see how the seedlings are growing, or to find out about how many cycles of crops can be grown in the greenhouse during winter, and how often to water them. These tasks, whether big or small, all involve technical issues related to vegetable growing, and as long as one does them diligently, they can accomplish them. Where do false leaders primarily show their falsehood? The most prominent is not doing real work; they just do some tasks that make themselves look good and then consider it done, and then they start to enjoy the benefits of their status. No matter how much of this type of work they do, does it mean they’re carrying out real work? Most false leaders comprehend the truth impurely, only understanding some words and doctrines, which makes it very difficult to do real work well. A portion of false leaders can’t even resolve issues related to general affairs; they clearly have poor caliber and lack spiritual understanding. There is absolutely no value in cultivating them. Some false leaders do have a little caliber, but they do not do real work, and they indulge in fleshly comforts. People who indulge in fleshly comforts are not much different from pigs. Pigs spend their days sleeping and eating. They do nothing. However, after a year of hard work keeping them fed, when the whole family eats their meat at year’s end, they may be said to have been of service. If a false leader is kept like a pig, eating and drinking for free three times each day, growing fat and strong, but they do not do any real work and are a wastrel, has keeping them not been futile? Has it been of any use? They can only serve as a foil and should be eliminated. Really, it is better to keep a pig than a false leader. False leaders may have the title of “leader,” they may occupy this position, eating well three times a day, enjoying many of God’s graces, growing plump and rosy from all the eating by the end of the year—but what about the work? They ought to look at all that has been accomplished in their work this year: Have they had results in any area of work this year? What real work did they do? God’s house does not ask that they do every job perfectly, but they must do the key work well—the work of the gospel, for example, or film production work, text-based work, and so on. These must all be fruitful. Under normal circumstances, most work should produce some results and achievements after three to five months; if there are no achievements after a year, then this is a serious problem. Within the scope of their responsibility, which work has been the most fruitful? Which one have they paid the greatest price and suffered the most for throughout the year? They should present this achievement, and reflect on whether they have made any valuable achievements from their year of enjoying God’s grace; they should have a clear sense of this in their hearts. Just what were they doing while they ate the food of God’s house and enjoyed God’s grace for all this time? Have they achieved anything? If they have achieved nothing, then they are just muddling by; they are veritable false leaders. Should such leaders be dismissed and eliminated? (Yes.) Can you discern such false leaders when you encounter them? Can you see that they are false leaders, just muddling along to get a free meal ticket? They eat until their mouths are greasy but never seem worried or anxious about work, not participating in or inquiring about any specific tasks. Even if they inquire, it’s for a reason; they only do so when the Above pressures them about results and wouldn’t bother otherwise. They are always indulging in enjoyment, often watching movies or TV shows. They delegate work and while everyone else is busy doing their duties, they are resting and enjoying themselves. If there’s a problem and you try to find them to handle it, they are nowhere to be seen, but they’re never late for meals. And after eating, when everyone else gets back to work, they go off to take more time off. If you ask them, “Why don’t you go out and check on the work? Everyone is waiting for your direction, for your arrangements!” they say: “Why wait for me? You all can do it, you all know how to do it—isn’t it the same when I’m not around? Can’t I rest for a while?” “Is that resting? You’re just watching movies!” “I’m learning professional skills, I’m studying how movies are shot.” They even come up with excuses. They watch one movie after another, and when everyone rests at night, they do too. Each day, they just muddle through like this, but to what extent? Everyone finds them disagreeable, they make everyone feel awkward, and eventually, no one pays them any attention. Tell Me, if this leader is not in charge, can the work still progress? Without them, does the earth stop spinning? (It keeps spinning.) Then, they should be exposed so that everyone can see that this person is not attending to proper tasks and that none should be constrained by them. This false leader who does not attend to proper tasks must be exposed and dissected for everyone to discern, and then they should be discharged to stand aside! Can you discern such false leaders when you encounter them? Without false leaders, would you all feel like you’re sailors without a captain? Would you independently complete work and accomplish tasks? If you wouldn’t, then you’re in danger. Facing this kind of false leader, who doesn’t properly do their duty, doesn’t lead by example, and idles away time chatting online—would you have discernment in this sort of situation? Would you be influenced by them to also engage in idle chatter and delay your duties? Can you still follow such false leaders? (No.)

Some false leaders are gluttonous and lazy, preferring comfort to hard work. They neither want to work nor worry, shirking effort and responsibility, only wanting to indulge in comfort. They like to eat and play, and are especially lazy. There was one false leader who would only get up in the morning after everyone had finished eating, and at night, they would still be watching TV dramas while everyone else was resting. A brother responsible for cooking couldn’t stand it anymore and criticized them. Do you think they would listen to a cook? (No.) Suppose a leader or worker had reprimanded them, saying, “You need to be more diligent; the work that needs to be done must be done. As a leader, you must fulfill your responsibilities no matter what the work is; you must ensure that there are no problems with it. Now that a problem has been found, and you are not present to resolve it, this affects the work. If you consistently work this way, isn’t this delaying the church’s work? Can you bear this responsibility?” Would they listen to this? Not necessarily. For such false leaders, the decision-making group should promptly dismiss them and make other work arrangements for them, letting them do whatever they are capable of doing. If they are good-for-nothings, wanting to freeload wherever they go, unable to do anything, then send them away without letting them do any duty. They are not worthy of doing duty; they are not human, they lack the conscience and reason of normal humanity, they are shameless. For such false leaders, who amount to layabouts, once seen through, they should be directly dismissed; there’s no need to try to exhort them, and they should not be afforded any opportunities to undergo observation, nor is it necessary to fellowship the truth with them. Haven’t they heard enough truths? If they were pruned, could they change? They could not. If someone has poor caliber, sometimes holds absurd views, or fails to see the full picture out of ignorance, but they are diligent, carry a burden, and are not lazy, then such a person, despite deviations in doing their duty, can repent when faced with being pruned. At the very least, they know the responsibilities of a leader and know what they should do, they have a conscience and a sense of responsibility, and they have a heart. However, those who are lazy, prefer comfort over hard work, and are unburdened, cannot change. There’s no burden in their heart; no matter who prunes them, it’s useless. Some people say, “Then, if God’s judgment, chastisement, trials, and refinement came upon them, would it change their issue of being unburdened?” This can’t be changed; it’s determined by one’s nature, like a dog can’t change its habit of eating filth. Whenever you see someone who is lazy and unburdened and also serves as a leader, you can be sure that they are a false leader. Some might say, “How can you call them a false leader? They have good caliber, are shrewd, can see through things, and can concoct plans. In the world, they managed businesses, served as CEOs; they are knowledgeable, experienced, and worldly-wise!” Can these qualities solve their problem of being lazy and lacking a burden? (No.)

What kind of manifestations and characteristics do those who are excessively lazy display? Firstly, in whatever they are doing, they act perfunctorily, dawdle about, go at a leisurely pace, and rest and procrastinate whenever possible. Secondly, they pay no mind to the church’s work. To them, whoever likes worrying about such things may do so. They will not. When they do worry about something, it’s for the sake of their own fame, gain, and status—all that matters for them is that they are able to enjoy the benefits of status. Thirdly, they shy away from hardship in their work; they cannot accept their work being even slightly tiring, becoming very resentful if it is, and they are unable to bear hardship or pay a price. Fourthly, they are unable to persevere in whatever work they do, always giving up halfway and unable to see things through. If they’re momentarily in a good mood, they might do some work for fun, but if something requires long-term commitment, and it keeps them busy, requires a lot of thought, and fatigues their flesh, over time they will begin to grumble. For instance, some leaders are in charge of church work, and they find it new and fresh at first. They are very motivated in their fellowship of the truth and when they see brothers and sisters have problems, they are able to help and resolve them. But, after persisting for a while, they start to find the work of being a leader too exhausting, and they become negative—they wish to switch to an easier job, and are not willing to bear hardship. Such people lack perseverance. Fifthly, another characteristic that distinguishes lazy people is their unwillingness to do real work. As soon as their flesh suffers, they come up with excuses to evade and shirk their work, or pass it off to someone else. And when that person finishes the work, they shamelessly reap the rewards themselves. These are the five major characteristics of lazy people. You should check to see if there are such lazy people among the leaders and workers in the churches. If you find one, they should be dismissed immediately. Can lazy people do good work as leaders? No matter what kind of caliber they have or the quality of their humanity, if they are lazy, they will be unable to do their work well, and they will delay the work and important matters. The church’s work is multifaceted; each aspect of it entails many detailed tasks and requires fellowshipping about the truth to resolve problems in order to be done well. Therefore, leaders and workers must be diligent—they have to do a lot of talking and a lot of work every day to ensure the work’s effectiveness. If they speak or do too little, there will be no results. So, if a leader or worker is a lazy person, they are certainly a false leader and are incapable of doing real work. Lazy people do not do real work, much less go themselves to work sites, and they are not willing to resolve problems or involve themselves in any specific work. They do not have the slightest understanding or grasp of the problems in any work. They only have a superficial, vague idea in their heads from listening to what others have said, and they muddle through by just preaching a bit of doctrine. Are you able to discern this kind of leader? Are you able to tell that they are false leaders? (To a degree.) Lazy people are perfunctory in whatever duty they do. No matter the duty, they lack perseverance, work in fits and starts, and complain whenever they suffer some hardships, pouring out unending grievances. They hurl abuse at whoever criticizes or prunes them, like a shrew insulting people in the streets, always wanting to vent their anger at others, and not wanting to do their duty. What does it show that they do not want to do their duty? It shows that they do not bear a burden, are unwilling to take on responsibility, and are lazy people. They do not want to suffer hardships or pay the price. This especially applies to leaders and workers: If they do not bear a burden, can they fulfill the responsibilities of leaders and workers? Absolutely not.

False Leaders Do Not Follow Up on or Provide Direction Regarding the Work

We just discussed this aspect of the fifth responsibility of leaders and workers: “maintain a grasp and understanding of the status of each item of work.” By discussing this aspect, we exposed some specific manifestations of false leaders, as well as their humanity and character. Now, let’s look at “maintaining a grasp and understanding of the progress of each item of work.” Of course, the progress of work is somewhat related to the status of work, the relationship is relatively close. If one cannot maintain an understanding and grasp of the status of an item of work, then they similarly cannot maintain an understanding and grasp of the progress of the work. For instance, how the progress of the work is, to what stage it has advanced, what the states of the people involved are, whether there are any difficulties with professional aspects, whether there are any areas of the work that do not meet the requirements of God’s house, what the results which have been achieved are like, whether any people working who are not very skilled in professional aspects of the work are learning, who organizes the learning, what they’re learning, how they’re learning, and so on and so forth—these specific issues are all related to progress. For example, isn’t the work of composing hymns quite important? For one hymn, from the initial selection of classic passages of God’s words to the completion of composition, what specific tasks need to be undertaken in this process? First, it’s necessary to select classic passages of God’s words that are suitable for becoming hymns, and they must also be of appropriate length. The second step involves deliberating which style of melody suits the passage to make it pleasant and enjoyable to sing. Then, the right people to sing the hymn must be found. Aren’t these specific tasks? (Yes.) After a hymn is composed, the false leader doesn’t inquire at all about whether the composition is qualified or the style appropriate. The composer, noticing the lack of supervision, personally feels it’s adequate and proceeds to record it. The passage of God’s words that everyone was looking forward to being turned into a hymn is finally set to music and made into a hymn, but most find it still has flaws when singing. What problem arises? The composed hymn is not up to par: It got recorded despite lacking melody and appeal. The false leader, after hearing it, asks, “Who composed this hymn? Why was it recorded?” By the time they ask this question, at least a month has already passed. During this month, shouldn’t the leader have followed up on and promptly grasped the progress of this work? For instance, how was the composition going? Was the basic tune determined? Did it have a melody? Did the melody and style of this hymn match God’s words? Did individuals with relevant experience help with guidance? After composing it, could this hymn be widely sung? What effect would it have? Was the tune considered good? The false leader uniformly failed to follow up on matters such as these. And they have a reason for not following up: “I don’t understand hymn composition. How can I follow up on something I don’t understand? It’s impossible.” Is this a legitimate reason? (No.) It’s not a legitimate reason; so, can someone who is not familiar with composing hymns still follow up? (Yes.) How should they follow up? (They can work together with the brothers and sisters, and audit the melody based on principles to see if it’s suitable; they can practically follow up on the work, instead of washing their hands of it.) The chief characteristic of the work of false leaders is blathering on about doctrine and parroting slogans. After issuing their orders, they simply wash their hands of the matter. They don’t ask questions about the work’s subsequent development; they do not ask whether any problems, deviations, or difficulties have arisen. They consider their job finished as soon as they assign the work. In fact, as a leader, after arranging the work, you must follow up on the work’s progress. Even if you aren’t familiar with that field of work—even if you lack any knowledge of it—you can find a way to do your work. You can find someone who truly grasps it, who understands the profession in question, to carry out vetting and make suggestions. From their suggestions you can identify the appropriate principles, and thus you will be able to follow up on the work. Whether or not you are familiar with or understand the profession in question, at the very least you must preside over the work, follow up on it, and continuously make inquiries and ask questions about its progress. You must maintain a grasp of such matters; this is your responsibility, it is part of your job. Not following up on the work, not doing anything more once it has been assigned, washing your hands of it—this is the way false leaders do things. Not following up on or providing direction regarding the work, not inquiring about or resolving issues that arise, and not grasping the progress or efficiency of the work—these are also manifestations of false leaders.

False Leaders Do Not Do Real Work, Which Delays the Progress of the Work

Because false leaders do not learn about the progress of the work, and because they are incapable of promptly identifying—much less solving—problems that arise in it, this often leads to repeated delays. In certain work, because people have no grasp of the principles and there is no one suitable to be responsible for it or preside over it, those carrying out the work are often in a state of negativity, passivity, and waiting, which severely affects the progress of the work. If the leader had fulfilled their responsibilities—if they had presided over the work, pushed it forward, supervised it, and found someone who understands that field to guide the work, then the work would have progressed faster rather than suffering repeated delays. For leaders, then, it is vital to understand and grasp the status of the work. Of course, it is also very necessary for leaders to understand and grasp how the work is progressing, as progress relates to the efficiency of the work and the results it’s supposed to achieve. If leaders and workers do not have a grasp on how the church’s work is progressing, and they do not follow up on or supervise things, then the progress of the church’s work is bound to be slow. This is due to the fact that the majority of people doing duties are seriously scummy, do not have a sense of burden, and are often negative, passive, and perfunctory. If there is nobody with a sense of burden and work capabilities taking responsibility for the work in a concrete manner, learning about the progress of the work in a timely manner, and guiding, supervising, disciplining, and pruning personnel who do duties, then naturally, the level of work efficiency is going to be very low and the results of the work are going to be very poor. If leaders and workers can’t even see this clearly, they are foolish and blind. And so, leaders and workers must promptly look into, follow up on, and grasp the progress of work, look into what problems people doing duties have that need to be resolved, and understand which problems should be resolved in order to achieve better results. These things are all very crucial, a person acting as a leader must be clear on these things. To do your duty well, you must not be like a false leader, who does some superficial work and then thinks they’ve done their duty well. False leaders are careless and slapdash in their work, they have no sense of responsibility, they don’t solve problems when they arise, and no matter what work they’re doing, they only skim the surface of it and approach it perfunctorily; they just speak high-sounding words, spout doctrines and empty talk, and go through the motions in their work. In general, this is the state of how false leaders do work. Although, in comparison to antichrists, false leaders do nothing overtly evil and are not deliberately doing evil, when you look at the effectiveness of their work, it is fair to characterize them as being perfunctory, as not bearing a burden, as being irresponsible and having no loyalty toward their work.

We fellowshipped just now about false leaders not doing real work, and not understanding and grasping the progress of each item of work. Regarding the problems and difficulties that arise in church work, it is also the case that false leaders simply pay them no mind or just spout a little doctrine and parrot a few slogans to brush them off. For all items of work, one will never see them coming to the workplace themselves to try to understand and follow up on the work. One will not see them fellowshipping on the truth to resolve problems there, and less still will one see them there directing and supervising the work personally, preventing flaws and deviations from occurring in it. This is the most obvious manifestation of the perfunctory way in which false leaders work. Though false leaders, unlike antichrists, do not set out to disrupt and disturb the work of the church, nor do they do a variety of evils and establish their own independent kingdoms, their various perfunctory behaviors cause massive hindrances to the work of the church, so that various problems emerge endlessly and go unresolved. This seriously impacts the progress of each item of the church’s work, and affects the life entry of God’s chosen people. Shouldn’t such false leaders be eliminated? False leaders are unable to do real work—whatever they do has a strong start but peters out in the end. The role they play is that of an opener of ceremonies: They chant slogans and preach doctrines, and when they have assigned the work to others and arranged who will be responsible for it, they are finished with it. They are akin to the blaring loudspeakers one finds in rural areas of China—this is the extent of the role they play. They do only a bit of preliminary work; for the rest of the work, they are nowhere to be seen. As for specific questions such as how each item of work is going, whether it is in line with the principles, and whether it is effective—they do not know the answers. They never engage deeply with the grassroots and visit the workplace to understand and get a grasp on the progress and particulars of each item of work. Therefore, false leaders may not set out to cause disruptions and disturbances, or do various evils during their tenure as leaders, but, as a matter of fact, they paralyze the work, delay the progress of each item of the church’s work, and make it impossible for God’s chosen people to do their duties well and gain life entry. Working this way, how could they possibly lead God’s chosen people onto the right track of faith in God? This shows that false leaders do not do any real work. They fail to follow up on the work they should be responsible for or to provide guidance and supervision for it in order to ensure that the church’s work progresses normally; they fail to perform the intended functions of leaders and workers, and they fail to fulfill their loyalty or responsibilities. This confirms that false leaders are not loyal in how they do their duties, that they are just perfunctory; they deceive both God’s chosen people and God Himself, and they affect and hinder the carrying out of His will. This fact is visible to all. It may be that a false leader is truly not up to the work; it may also be that they are shirking their work and deliberately being perfunctory. Either way, the fact remains that they make a mess of the church’s work. Not a bit of progress is made in each item of the church’s work, and a pile of accumulated problems remain unresolved for a long time. This does not only affect the spread of the gospel work, but also gravely impedes the life entry of God’s chosen people. These facts suffice to show that false leaders are not only unable to do real work, but also become obstacles to the work of spreading the gospel, and impediments to the carrying out of God’s will in the church.

False leaders don’t do real work and are unable to solve real problems. Not only does this delay the progress of work and affect its results, but it also causes serious losses to the work of the church, wasting a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. Therefore, false leaders should compensate for the economic losses. Some people say, “If leaders and workers have to compensate for losses caused by not doing their work well, then no one would be willing to be a leader or worker.” Such irresponsible people are not qualified to be leaders or workers. Those without conscience or reason are evil people—isn’t it troublesome if evil people want to be leaders and workers? Since much of the work of God’s house involves economic expenses, is it not necessary to account for them? Are God’s offerings something that people can waste and squander at will? What right do leaders and workers have to squander God’s offerings? Bringing about economic loss must be compensated for; this is perfectly natural and justified, and no one can deny this. For instance, say there is a job that could be completed in one month by one person. If it takes six months to do this job, do the expenditures of the remaining five months not constitute a loss? Let Me give an example about preaching the gospel. Say that a person is willing to investigate the true way and could probably be won over in just one month, after which they would enter the church and continue to receive watering and provision, and within six months they could establish a foundation. But if the attitude the person preaching the gospel takes toward this matter is one of disregard and perfunctoriness, and the leaders and workers also ignore their responsibilities, and it ends up taking half a year to win that person over, will this half a year not constitute a loss to their life? If they encounter the great disasters and they have not yet laid down a foundation on the true way, they will be in danger, and will those people not have failed them then? Such a loss cannot be measured with money or material things. Those people will have held up that person’s understanding of the truth by half a year; they will have delayed them in establishing a foundation and in starting to do their duty by half a year. Who will take responsibility for this? Can the leaders and workers afford to take responsibility for this? No one can afford to bear the responsibility for holding up someone’s life. Since no one can afford to bear this responsibility, what is appropriate for the leaders and workers to do? Four words: Give it your all. Give it your all to do what? To fulfill your own responsibilities, doing everything that you can see with your own eyes, think of in your mind, and achieve with your own caliber. This is giving it your all, this is being loyal and responsible, and this is the responsibility that leaders and workers should fulfill. Some leaders and workers do not treat preaching the gospel as a serious matter. They think, “God’s sheep will hear God’s voice. Whoever investigates and accepts will be blessed; whoever does not investigate and accept will not be blessed, and deserves to die in a disaster!” False leaders show no consideration whatsoever for God’s intentions, and bear no burden for gospel work; they also take no responsibility for newcomers who have just entered the church, and do not take the life entry of God’s chosen people seriously—they always focus on indulging in the benefits of their status. No matter how many people investigate the true way, they do not feel anxious at all, always having a mentality of just muddling along, acting like a retired emperor or an official. No matter how critical or urgent the work is, they never show up on the scene, and they don’t inquire about and understand the work situation, or follow up on the work and resolve problems. They just arrange tasks and think that their job is done and dusted, and they believe that this constitutes doing work. Is this not being perfunctory? Is this not deceiving both those above and below them? Are such leaders and workers fit to be used by God? Aren’t they just like the officials of the great red dragon? They think, “Being a leader or worker is just like holding an office, and one should enjoy the benefits of this status. Holding office grants me this privilege, exempting me from being present for all matters. If I were always on the scene, following up on work and understanding the situation, how tiring that would be, how demeaning! I cannot accept such fatigue!” This is exactly how false leaders and false workers work, concerned only with coveting comfort and enjoying the benefits of status without doing any real work, and completely devoid of any conscience or reason. Such parasites really should be eliminated, and even if they are punished, they deserve it! Some leaders and workers, despite many years of doing church work, don’t know how to preach the gospel, much less testify. If you ask them to fellowship on all the truths concerning the visions of God’s work to potential gospel recipients, they are incapable of it. When asked, “Have you ever put in the effort to equip yourself with the truth of visions?” false leaders ponder, “Why should I exert such effort? With my high status, that task isn’t for me; there are plenty of others to do it.” Tell Me, what sort of creatures are they? They’ve been doing church work for many years, yet don’t know how to preach the gospel. And when it comes to testifying, they must find a gospel preacher to do it for them. If leaders and workers cannot preach the gospel, testify, or fellowship with people on the truths regarding visions, what can they do? What are their responsibilities? Have they fulfilled them? Are they just getting by on what they already have? What is it that they have? Who authorized them to get by on what they already have? Some gospel team supervisors have never even observed and listened to others preaching the gospel. They don’t care to listen; they can’t be bothered, find it too troublesome, and lack the patience. They are leaders, don’t you know—officials, no less—so they don’t do these specific tasks; they get the brothers and sisters to do them. Suppose that some gospel workers happen upon a person of high caliber, who approaches all things with earnestness, and who wishes to understand some specific truths regarding visions. The gospel workers can’t fellowship entirely clearly, so they ask their leader to do it. The leader finds themselves at a loss for words, and even resorts to excuses, saying, “I’ve never done this work myself. You go do it; I’ll back you up. If any problems arise, I’ll help you fix them; I support you. Don’t worry. What is there to fear when we have God? When someone seeks the true way, you can testify or fellowship about the truths of visions. I’m only responsible for fellowshipping on the truths of life entry. The work of testifying is your heavy burden to bear, don’t rely on me.” Every time it comes to the crucial moment of testifying in preaching the gospel, they hide away. They are fully aware that they lack the truth, so why don’t they make an effort to equip themselves with it? Knowing full well that they lack the truth, why do they always desperately strive to become leaders? They have no talent whatsoever, and yet they have the gall to take on any official position—they would even take on the role of emperor if you let them—they are far too shameless! No matter the level of leadership they hold, they cannot do real work, yet they dare to enjoy the benefits of status without feeling any pangs of conscience. Are they not utterly shameless people? It would be understandable if they had been asked to speak in a foreign language and they couldn’t; but fellowshipping the truths of visions and God’s intentions in their native language should be possible, right? People who have only believed for three to five years may be excused for not being able to fellowship the truth. But some have believed in God for nearly 20 years and somehow still aren’t able to fellowship the truths regarding visions—aren’t such people useless individuals? Aren’t they good-for-nothings? It astonishes Me to hear that someone has believed in God for many years, yet doesn’t know how to fellowship the truths about visions. What do you all feel after hearing this? Isn’t it inconceivable? How have they been doing their work all these years? When asked to provide guidance for making music, they don’t know how to, and say that this specialized area is too difficult, that it’s not something the average person can understand. When asked to provide guidance in the work of producing art, or in film production work, they claim these jobs require too high a level of technical skill for them to handle. When asked to write articles of experiential testimony, they say that their level of education is too low and they don’t know how to write them, and that they have never trained in it. If they cannot perform these sorts of jobs, that’s forgivable, but gospel work is inherently part of their duty. They couldn’t be any more familiar with this work—shouldn’t it be easy for them? The most important aspect of fellowshipping on the truths about visions is to clearly fellowship the truth of the three stages of work. Initially, people don’t have much experience of doing it and may not fellowship that well, but by training at it over time, they are able to get better at fellowshipping the more they do it, such that they are able to speak in a structured way, with precise and clear language, and a nice turn of phrase. Isn’t this a specific area of specialized work that leaders should master? This isn’t like forcing an elephant to fly, is it? (No, it’s not.) But such false leaders are not competent to do even this bit of work. And yet, they still serve as leaders? What are they doing still occupying that position? Some people say, “I’m someone whose thinking is muddled and unclear, lacking in logic, and I’m not that good at talking about the truths concerning visions.” That being the case, can you identify and resolve the various flaws and deviations that occur in gospel work? If you can’t identify them, then you certainly can’t resolve them either. When false leaders are in charge of gospel work, they don’t play any role in vetting or supervising; they just let those under them do as they please, so that anyone can do things how they want, and preach to whomever they want—there are absolutely no principles or standards applied. Some people act on a whim, lacking in reason and especially in principles when they do things, and recklessly committing misdeeds. False leaders completely fail to spot or identify these issues.

It is said that in South America and Africa, some poor people have been brought into the fold through gospel work. These people have no steady income, and even getting enough food and surviving pose problems. So, what should be done? There was a leader who said, “It is God’s intention to save humankind, and in order to be saved, one must first have enough to eat, right? Shouldn’t God’s house provide relief then? If they believe in God, we can distribute a few books of God’s words to them. They don’t have computers or phones, so what should we do if they ask to do duties? Make some inquiries, see if they are sincerely willing to do duties.” Through inquiry, it was found that these people were currently without money, but if they had money and could eat their fill, they would be willing to go out and preach the gospel and do their duty. After understanding these circumstances, the leaders began to distribute relief funds, issuing them every month. The food and lodging, and even internet fees, and the purchase of phones, computers, and other equipment for these people were all paid for with the money of God’s house. Distributing money to these people was not aimed at spreading the gospel work, but rather, at providing relief for their survival. Was this in line with principles? (No, it was not.) Does God’s house have a rule that, when preaching the gospel and encountering poor people without a means of livelihood, as long as they can accept this stage of work, they should be given aid? Is there such a principle? (No.) On what principle, then, did this leader distribute relief funds to them? Was it because they thought that God’s house had money but nowhere to spend it, or because they regarded these people as being too pitiful, or was it in hope that these people would help to spread the gospel? What exactly was their intention? What were they trying to achieve? When it came to distributing phones, computers, and living expenses, they exhibited great gusto; they enjoyed engaging in such work that provided benefits to others, as it allowed them to curry favor with these people and win their hearts, and they were particularly invested in these kinds of tasks, going further and further and having not an ounce of shame. This is using God’s money to curry favor with people and buy their affection. In fact, these poor individuals didn’t truly believe in God; they were just trying to fill their stomachs and find a way to make a living. Such people were not looking to gain the truth or salvation. Would God save these people? Some, even if they were willing to do a duty, were not sincere, but rather, were motivated by the desire for phones and computers, for conveniences in life. But the false leader did not care about this; as long as someone was willing to do a duty, they took care of them, not only providing money for housing and food, but also buying computers, phones, and various equipment. But it turned out that these people did their duties without achieving any effect whatsoever. Was the false leader not just throwing money away? Were they not using the money of God’s house to show their generosity? (Yes.) Is this the work that leaders and workers should do? (No.) Wasn’t this a false leader? False leaders are fond of feigning goodness, benevolence, and kindheartedness. If you want to show kindheartedness, that’s fine, just use your own money! If they have no clothing, take off your own and give it to them; don’t spend God’s offerings! God’s offerings are meant for the work of spreading the gospel, not for distributing welfare benefits, and certainly not for providing aid to the poor. God’s house is not a welfare institution. False leaders are incapable of real work, and even less capable are they of supplying the truth or life. They focus only on using God’s offerings to distribute welfare benefits in order to curry favor with people and maintain their own reputation and status. They are shameless spendthrifts, aren’t they? If such false leaders are discovered, can anyone expose and stop them in time? No one stood up to stop them. If it hadn’t been for the Above finding out and putting a stop to it, the practice of using God’s money to provide benefits to people would never have ended. Those poor people stretch out their hands farther and farther, always wanting more. They are insatiable; no matter how much you give, it is never enough. Those who sincerely believe in God are able to leave their families and careers behind to do their duty in order to be saved, and even if they face difficulties in life, they can find ways to resolve them on their own without constantly demanding things from God’s house. They resolve what they can on their own, and for what they are unable to resolve, they pray to God and rely on their faith to experience. Those who always beg from God, expecting God’s house to provide for their living expenses and sustain them, are utterly lacking in reason! They do not want to do any duty yet wish to enjoy life, knowing only to extend their hands to demand things from God’s house, and even then, it’s never enough. Are they not panhandlers? And the false leader—this moron—just kept giving out benefits, and didn’t stop, continually pleasing people to earn their gratitude, and even thinking that such actions glorify God. These are the things that false leaders take the most delight in doing. So, is there anyone who can identify these issues, who can see through to the essence of these problems? Most leaders turn a blind eye, thinking, “At any rate, I’m not in charge of gospel work, why should I care about these things? It’s not my money being spent. As long as the cash in my own pocket goes untouched, it’s fine. You can give to whoever you want, what does it have to do with me? It’s not like that money ends up in my wallet anyway.” There are many such irresponsible people around, but how many can uphold the work of God’s house?

Now, gospel work overseas is universally underway. Some countries have more people who can accept the truth, while others have populations of lesser caliber, resulting in fewer who can accept the truth. Some countries lack freedom of belief, showing strong resistance to the true way and God’s work, and not many people can accept the truth. Furthermore, some countries’ populations are too backward and are of such poor caliber that they cannot understand the truth no matter how it is fellowshipped, and it appears that the people there fall short of the truth. The gospel should not be preached in such places. However, those preaching the gospel fail to see the essence of the problem; they do not preach to those who can accept the truth, insisting instead on seeking out the hard cases while ignoring the easier ones. They do not preach in places where the gospel work is already being spread and it is easy to preach. Instead, they insist on preaching the gospel in those poor and backward places, preaching to the groups of people with the worst caliber, who cannot comprehend the truth, and to the ethnic groups with the heaviest religious notions and the strongest resistance to God. Isn’t this a deviation? Take, for example, Judaism, and some deeply entrenched racial religions, which regard Christianity as an enemy and even persecute it. In the case of these kinds of countries and ethnic groups, the gospel simply should not be preached. Why not? Because preaching is futile. Even if you commit all manpower, financial resources, and material resources, three, five, or even ten years might pass without seeing any significant results. In light of this situation, what can be done? At first, not knowing any better, one could try; but upon clearly seeing the circumstances—that preaching the gospel to them at great cost may not necessarily yield good results in the end—one must then choose another path, a path that can achieve results. Isn’t this something that leaders and workers should see through? (Yes.) But false leaders do not understand this. When it comes to where to start spreading the gospel overseas, some say, “Start with Israel. As Israel was the base for God’s first two stages of work, it must be preached there. No matter how difficult it is, we must persist in preaching to them.” However, after a long time of preaching, there are no significant results, leading to disappointment. What should leaders do at this time? If it was a leader with caliber and a burden, they would say, “Our preaching of the gospel has no principle; we don’t know how to go with the flow, but just view things based on our imaginings—that’s too naive of us! The foolishness, stubbornness, and absurdity of these people weren’t what we expected. We thought that because they have been believing in God for thousands of years, they should be the first to hear God’s gospel, but we thought wrong; they are too absurd! In fact, when God was doing the work of redemption, He had already given up on them. For us to go back and preach to them now would be to engage in a futile effort; it would be laboring in vain and acting foolishly. We have misunderstood God’s intentions. God doesn’t work on this matter, so by what means can we humans can do it? We’ve given it a shot, but no matter how we preach, they do not accept the true way. We should give it up for now, leave them aside, and pay no attention to them for the time being. If there are those who are willing to seek, then we will welcome them and testify God’s work to them. If there are none who seek, then there’s no need for us to proactively look for them.” Isn’t this a principle of preaching the gospel? (Yes.) So, can a false leader adhere to principles? (No.) False leaders have poor caliber and cannot see through to the essence of the issue; they will say, “God has said that the Israelites are His chosen people. We can never give up on them at any time. They should come first; we need to preach to them first before preaching to people in other countries. If God’s work were to be spread in Israel, what a great glory that would be! God brought glory from Israel to the East, and we should bring that glory back to Israel from the East, and let them see that God has returned!” Is this not just a slogan? Does this align with the facts? This is what those who lack spiritual understanding would say. What about those false leaders who do no real work? They pay no heed to these things. People preaching the gospel have been troubled by this issue for a long time, torn between giving up and continuing to preach, unsure of how to practice. False leaders are completely oblivious that this is a problem. Seeing these people fretting over not having a path, they say, “What is there to worry about? We have the truth and experiential testimony; just preach to them!” Someone says, “You don’t understand, these people are really hard to preach to.” When significant issues arise in the work that require the leaders to resolve them, the leaders are still just shouting slogans and speaking empty words. Is this the behavior expected of leaders? When asked whether such potential gospel recipients should be preached to, they say, “Everyone should be preached to, especially Israelites, they should definitely be preached to.” Do you hear any problem with these words? Do they know this is a deviation, a flaw in the gospel work that needs to be handled by them? These good-for-nothings don’t know and are still there spouting high-sounding language and shouting slogans, they truly are useless trash! And yet they think they’re astute, and that they have caliber and are clever. They aren’t even aware that such a big flaw and deviation has appeared in the work; can they even begin to resolve it? That’s even less likely. Those who preach the gospel are all worried sick; the gospel work has been impacted, hindered, and cannot proceed smoothly, and the false leaders surprisingly have no clue about the deviation occurring in the work. Most people, when encountering problems or deviations in the work, often don’t care, don’t notice, and still stubbornly persist in the wrong approach with reckless abandon. If leaders and workers also don’t promptly understand and grasp the situation, then by the time that the problem has become serious and affected the progress of the work, and most people can discover the problem, the leaders and workers are dumbfounded. This is caused by the dereliction of duty by the leaders and workers. So, how can they avoid such severe consequences? Leaders and workers must regularly check the work, and promptly understand the current status and progress of the work. If it’s found that the work efficiency is not high, they must see which part has flaws and problems, and ponder: “Right now, these people appear to be busy, but why isn’t there any obvious efficiency? Like the work of the gospel team; so many people preach the gospel and testify every day, along with some people who cooperate in this work, so why aren’t many people gained each month? Which part has a problem? Who is causing the problem? How was this deviation created? When did it start? I need to go to each group to find out what everyone is doing now, how the current potential gospel recipients are, and whether the direction of preaching the gospel is accurate; I need to find out all of this.” Through consulting, fellowshipping, and discussing, the deviations and flaws in the work gradually become apparent. Once a problem is discovered, it cannot be left alone; it must be resolved. So, what kind of leaders can detect some problems, deviations, and flaws that appear in the work? These leaders need to bear a burden, be diligent, and be involved in every detail of the specific work; follow up, understand, and grasp every part; ascertain what everyone is doing, what number of people is suitable for doing which task, who the supervisors are, what the caliber of these people is, and whether they are doing their work well or not, and what their efficiency is like, how the work is progressing, and so on and so forth—all of these things must be ascertained. Additionally, the most critical part of the gospel work is whether gospel preachers have the truth or not, whether they can fellowship on the truths of visions clearly to resolve people’s notions and problems, whether they can supply what the potential gospel recipients lack in order to convince them thoroughly, and whether they can adopt a conversational manner in their fellowship of the truth, so that potential gospel recipients can hear more of God’s voice. For instance, if a potential gospel recipient wants to learn about truths concerning the significance of God’s incarnation, but a certain gospel preacher always talks about the significance of God’s work and about what religious notions are, isn’t this a problem? If a person just wants to learn about how they can be saved and what the content of God’s management plan for saving humankind is, isn’t this the time to fellowship about the vision truths concerning the three stages of God’s work? (Yes.) But this gospel preacher keeps talking about God’s chastisement and judgment, and His exposure that people’s corrupt dispositions include arrogance, deceitfulness, and wickedness, and other such topics. Before the other party has accepted God’s work, the gospel preacher starts talking to them about chastisement and judgment, exposing their corrupt dispositions. As a result, the person is repelled, doesn’t get what they want, and their problems that need resolution remain unresolved; they lose interest and aren’t willing to continue investigating. Isn’t this a problem with the gospel preacher? The gospel preacher doesn’t understand the truth, or lacks spiritual understanding, and so is completely unaware of what the other person needs, failing to make a point when they speak, rambling on at great length, and not resolving the issues of the potential gospel recipient at all—how can they possibly gain people by preaching the gospel this way?

False leaders disregard whatever issues they come up against in their work. No matter what problems arise in gospel work, and no matter how evil people disturb and affect this work, they pay no heed to any of it, as if it has nothing to do with them. False leaders are muddle-headed in their work; regardless of whether a certain individual has any results or conforms to the principles in their duty, they do not provide supervision or vetting, allowing people to act freely no matter the consequences. This causes the deviations and flaws that appear in the gospel work to never get resolved, and an untold number of people who seek the true way end up slipping away, unable to be brought before God as soon as possible. Some people, after coming to accept God’s work in the last days, say, “Actually, someone preached the gospel to me three years ago. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to accept it or that I believed in negative propaganda; the person who preached to me was just so irresponsible. They couldn’t answer the questions I asked, and they were unclear in fellowshipping when I sought the truth, only speaking some useless words. As a result, all I could do was leave in disappointment.” Three years later, after investigating online and then seeking and fellowshipping with the brothers and sisters, these people resolve all the notions and confusions in their hearts one by one, fully confirming that it is God appearing and doing work, and accepting it. This is them accepting God’s work through their own seeking and investigation. Had the person preaching the gospel been able to clearly fellowship the truth and resolve their notions and questions three years earlier, they would have accepted it three years sooner. How much life growth was delayed during these three years! This must be deemed a dereliction of duty on the part of those preaching the gospel and is directly related to them not understanding the truth. Some gospel workers simply do not focus on equipping themselves with the truth, only capable of spouting some doctrines without being able to resolve people’s notions or actual issues. As a result, many people do not accept the gospel in a timely manner when they hear it, delaying their life growth by several years. It must be said that the leaders in charge of the gospel work are responsible for this due to their inadequate guidance and insufficient oversight. If leaders and workers truly have a burden and are able to endure a bit more suffering, practice fellowshipping the truth more, and show a bit more loyalty, fellowshipping clearly on all aspects of truth, so that those gospel workers are able to fellowship the truth to resolve people’s notions and doubts, then the results of preaching the gospel would get better and better. This would allow more people who are investigating the true way to accept God’s work earlier and return before God to receive His salvation sooner. The work of the church gets held up simply because false leaders are seriously derelict in their duties, do not do real work or follow up on and oversee work, and are unable to fellowship the truth to fix problems. Of course, it is also because these false leaders indulge in the benefits of status, do not pursue the truth at all, and are unwilling to follow up on, supervise, or direct the work of spreading the gospel—with the result that work progresses slowly, and many man-made deviations, absurdities, and reckless wrongdoings fail to be promptly rectified or resolved, which severely impacts the effectiveness of spreading the gospel. It is only when these problems are discovered by the Above and the leaders and workers are told they must fix them that these problems are corrected. Like blind people, these false leaders are unable to discover any problems, and there are no principles at all to the way they do things, and yet they are incapable of realizing their own mistakes, and only admit their errors when they are pruned by the Above. So who can afford to take responsibility for the losses caused by these false leaders? Even with removing them from their positions, how can the losses they caused be made up for? Thus when it is discovered that there are false leaders who are incapable of doing any real work, they should be promptly dismissed. In some churches, the gospel work progresses especially slowly, and this is simply down to false leaders not doing real work, as well as too many instances of dereliction and making mistakes on their part.

In all the different items of work that false leaders do, there are actually numerous issues, deviations, and flaws that they need to resolve, correct, and remedy. However, because these false leaders lack a sense of burden, indulging only in the benefits of their status without doing any real work, they end up making a mess of the work. In some churches, people are not united in their minds, with everyone suspecting, guarding against, and undermining each other, all the while fearing being eliminated by God’s house. Faced with these situations, false leaders do not move to resolve them, failing to do any real, specific work. Church work comes to a standstill, yet false leaders are not upset by this whatsoever, still believing they have done plenty of work themselves and haven’t delayed the church’s work. Such false leaders are fundamentally incapable of performing the work of supplying life, nor can they solve actual problems according to the truth. They only carry out a bit of general affairs work that is specially assigned and specified by the Above, as if their work is done solely for the Above. When it comes to the church’s fundamental work that the Above has always made a requirement—such as the work of supplying life and the work of cultivating people—or certain special tasks directed by the Above, they do not know how to do it and cannot do it. They only delegate these tasks to others and then consider their job done. They do exactly as much as they are instructed by the Above, and take a bit of action only when prodded; otherwise, they are inactive and perfunctory—this is a false leader. What is a false leader? In a nutshell, it is someone who doesn’t do real work, who doesn’t do their job as a leader, displaying gross dereliction of duty in critical and fundamental work and taking no action—this is a false leader. False leaders only occupy themselves with superficial general affairs, mistaking this for doing real work, and in actuality, when it comes to their job as a leader and the critical work assigned to them by God’s house, they don’t do any of it well. Additionally, issues frequently arise within the church’s various items of work that require the leader’s resolution, yet they cannot resolve them, often adopting an avoidant attitude, and the brothers and sisters cannot find them when they want to resolve an issue. If they do manage to find the leader, the leader sidesteps them with the excuse of being too busy with work and asks the brothers and sisters to read God’s words on their own and seek the truth to resolve their problems independently, adopting a hands-off approach. This ultimately leads to a backlog of too many unresolved issues, halting progress in all items of work and bringing the church’s work to a standstill. This is the consequence of false leaders not doing real work. False leaders are never earnest or diligent with regard to their core responsibilities, nor do they seek the truth to resolve various issues. This means that false leaders are bound to be incapable of doing real work and resolving any issues. What false leaders excel at is preaching words and doctrines, shouting slogans, and exhorting others, focusing only on busying themselves with general affairs work. Regarding the church’s fundamental work entrusted to them by God’s house, such as supplying life and fellowshipping the truth to resolve issues, they don’t know how to do them, do not train to learn how, and cannot resolve any actual problems—this is a false leader.

Some false leaders, when asked to guide text-based work such as writing scripts, writing articles of experiential testimony, and other specific tasks, think that since it’s merely guidance, they don’t have to do any concrete work, so they just wander about instead. “Zhang,” they say, “how is your article coming along?” “Almost there.” “Li, are you having any difficulties writing that script?” “Yes, can you help me resolve them?” “You all discuss it amongst yourselves. Do some more praying.” Not only do these false leaders fail to guide and assist the brothers and sisters, they also don’t focus on performing their own job well, always roaming about, and living a leisurely and comfortable life. On the surface, it appears they are inspecting the work, but in actuality they do not resolve any problems—paper pushers is what they really are! Those competent officials in some countries in the world of nonbelievers are equally corrupt humans, but even they are far superior to these false leaders, who lack the sense of responsibility these officials have. For instance, following the outbreak of the pandemic, countries around the world started implementing prevention measures. Eventually, the majority of these countries agreed that Taiwan’s preventative efforts were effective, indicating that Taiwanese government officials performed their pandemic response tasks to the highest standards and with the utmost detail. For a country of the secular world, for officials and politicians among corrupt humankind, to execute a task to the highest standards and with such detail is truly admirable. Many European officials were willing to visit and learn from Taiwan; from this perspective Taiwan’s government officials were far superior to those of other nations. Just because most of their officials were capable of doing concrete work and able to put their heart into fulfilling their responsibilities, it proves that these officials were up to standard. Some leaders and workers in the church are always perfunctory when doing their duties, and no matter how they’re pruned, it’s ineffective. I find that the character of these leaders and workers does not even match that of officials from the world of nonbelievers who can do actual work. Most of them claim to believe in God and pursue the truth, but in actuality, they are unwilling to pay a price. There is so much truth being supplied to them, yet such is their attitude toward doing their duty. The result is that they all become false leaders and workers, who fall far short when compared to superior government officials! My demands of people are actually not high; I don’t demand that people understand too many truths or have too high a caliber. The minimum standard is to act with conscience and fulfill one’s responsibilities. If nothing else, then at the very least, you should live up to your daily bread and the commission God has given you; that is sufficient. But God’s work has been done up until now, and can many people act with conscience? I see that some officials in democratic countries speak and act with sincerity. They don’t make exaggerations or speak lofty theories, their speech is especially rigorous and genuine, and they’re able to take care of many real matters. Their work is indeed quite good, truly reflecting their integrity and humanity. Looking at the majority of leaders and workers in the church now, in their work, they go through the motions and are perfunctory, they have not achieved very good results, and they have not completely fulfilled their responsibilities. After becoming leaders, they turn into religious officials, they sit upon their high horses and give orders, and become paper pushers. They just focus on indulging in the benefits of their status, and they like having everyone following them around and revolving around them. They seldom engage deeply with the church’s grassroots to resolve real problems. In their hearts they are moving further and further away from God. These kinds of false leaders and false workers are utterly irredeemable! I have fellowshipped the truth so painstakingly, yet these leaders and workers do not take it in, they stubbornly cling to their erroneous ideas, and they are unmoved. Their attitude toward their duties is always perfunctory, and they do not have the slightest intention of repenting. I see that these people are without a conscience, without reason, not human at all! I then ponder: Is it still necessary to fellowship repeatedly on these truths to these kinds of people? Do I need to make the fellowship so specific? Do I need to endure this suffering? Are these words superfluous? After some thought, I decide I still must speak, as although these words have no effect on those devoid of the slightest bit of conscience or reason, they are useful for those who, despite being a bit lower in caliber, can accept the truth and sincerely do their duties. False leaders do not do real work and do not fulfill their responsibilities, but those who pursue the truth will learn lessons, become inspired, and find a path to practice from these words and matters. Life entry is not so easy; without someone to support and supply, without breaking down and clarifying each aspect of the truth, people are very weak, often finding themselves in a state of helplessness and perplexity, a state of negativity and passivity. Therefore, many times, when I see these false leaders, I lose the heart to fellowship to them. However, when I think of the suffering endured and the prices paid by those who sincerely believe in God and who do their duties loyally, I change My mind. It’s for no other reason than this: Even if 30 to 50 people—or at the very least 8 or 10 people—can sincerely expend themselves and be loyal in doing their duties, and are willing to listen and submit, then speaking these words is worthwhile. I would have no motivation in Me to speak and fellowship to those who have no conscience and reason; conversing with these people feels exhausting and is fruitless. Most of you do not pursue the truth and do not pay a price in your duties—you have no burden or loyalty, you merely go through the motions in your actions, and reluctantly do things in the hope of gaining blessings. Listening to these words is actually an undeserved favor for you. You’re piggybacking on those who sincerely do their duties, who truly pay a price, who possess loyalty and burden, and who are willing to practice the truth. These words are meant for those people, and you are gaining an undeserved favor by hearing them. If viewed from this perspective—namely, that the majority of you have an attitude of going through the motions without any earnestness whatsoever in your duties—then you are not worthy of hearing these words. Why are you unworthy? Because even if you listen, it’s all for naught; no matter how much is said or how detailed it is, you just go through the motions of listening, not practicing these words no matter how much you understand after listening to them. To whom should these words be spoken? Who is worthy of hearing them? Only those willing to pay a price, who can sincerely expend themselves, and who are loyal to their duties and their commission deserve to listen. Why do I say they deserve to listen? Because once they understand a bit of truth after listening, they can put it into practice, and they practice what they understand; they aren’t slippery and they don’t slack off; and they treat the truth and God’s requirements with an attitude of sincerity and yearning, able to love and accept the truth. Thus, after they listen, these words have an effect on them and achieve a result.

February 13, 2021