Fellowship From the Brother Above – July 1, 2025 (Part Seven)

II. Questions Regarding Life Entry

Question 6: How should I practice so that I can truly forsake everything to expend myself for God?

Answer: Forsaking everything to expend yourself for God is not something you can achieve straight away. What do I mean when I say you cannot achieve it straight away? I mean, when you first start expending yourself for God, it’s impossible to forsake everything. It’s already pretty good if you can forsake one or two entanglements. So, what does forsaking everything include? It covers such a broad range of things. If you forsake your worldly prospects, career, and fame and gain, does that count as forsaking everything? (No.) It doesn’t count as forsaking everything. Then, if you forsake worldly entanglements and your worldly relationships with family, relatives, and friends, does that count as forsaking everything? (No.) That doesn’t count either. So, what does forsaking everything include? Besides the things I just mentioned, what else should you forsake? Satanic philosophies, satanic outlooks on life, satanic values, worldly knowledge and learning, interests and hobbies, all kinds of theories and ideas, and the traditional cultures of various nations—all these things that are not the truth of God’s words must be forsaken, given up, and rebelled against. Only then can you say you have forsaken everything. Forsaking everything means forsaking everything except for the truth; that is, all that is worldly. This includes forsaking and giving up your parents, spouse, children, fame, gain, and status, worldly thoughts and views, knowledge and learning, traditional culture, and even your own life, and instead accepting the truth and submitting to God. This is what it means to forsake everything. So how can you manage to forsake everything? How can you practice in a way that accords with the principles? Some people say, “Does forsaking everything mean we can’t eat? Or wear clothes? Or take cars, trains, or planes? Does it mean that we are forsaking everything only if we don’t use these things?” Are there people who comprehend it this way? Is this comprehension correct? (No.) This is an absurd view. After you forsake everything, do you live in a vacuum? (No.) You don’t live in a vacuum; you live in this world. Do you not live in houses built by nonbelievers? Do you not use appliances made by nonbelievers? Do you not eat food made by nonbelievers? These are all necessities for normal human survival. You cannot forsake them. If you forsook these things, how would you live? You couldn’t survive! So, what does the accurate comprehension of forsaking everything entail? You must forsake the path you pursued in the world, and you must forsake the thoughts and views you accepted in the world, the ones that fueled your striving. Additionally, you must also forsake your worldly job when your actual situation requires it. If you are someone specially called by God, and God’s house needs you to serve full-time as a leader or a worker or to perform a certain task, then in this situation, you can forsake your job, and God’s house will take responsibility for your livelihood. If you are not called by God’s house, and especially if God has not specifically instructed you to, then do not forsake your worldly job for the time being. If you forsake it, you won’t be able to make a living. You should continue to go to work as usual, ensure you have a livelihood and food and clothing, and then do some duty to the best of your ability. That is enough. Don’t pursue high living standards or seek to enjoy luxury treatment. Don’t pursue these things. Pursuing them is pursuing fleshly enjoyment, and this means you haven’t forsaken anything at all. In this world, if we engage in a job that can sustain our livelihood, and allow us to have food and clothing and not go hungry or cold, then we should be content. In this way, we can follow God and do our duty normally. This is the proper way to practice forsaking our worldly jobs, isn’t it? (It is.) Therefore, people must have a pure comprehension of forsaking everything. It’s not the case that as soon as you believe in God, you must forsake your worldly job, your worldly family, and all your secular relationships. That way of practicing is wrong. You must forsake things gradually, according to the degree to which you understand the truth and the amount of work your duty entails. If there is anything secular that affects your duty and your pursuit of the truth, then you must consider forsaking it and giving it up. For example, if you find a partner who affects your duty, then you must forsake them. Is this the right way to practice? (It is.) Yes, it’s correct. As another example, some outlooks on life, values, and thoughts and views from the nonbelieving world bind you, making it very difficult for you to pursue the truth and accept the truth. These thoughts and views come from traditional cultures and from the textbooks of the nonbelieving world; they are of Satan. If they affect your pursuit of the truth, should you give them up? (Yes.) Therefore, anything that can affect your pursuit of the truth, your duty, or your following God should be given up and forsaken. This is what it means to forsake everything. Is this understanding correct? (It is.) But before you forsake something, you must pray. If your environment does not permit it—if forsaking your job means you will have no source of income and you will have problems surviving—what should you do? Should you still forsake it? This depends on the actual situation. If a person can do a duty in a certain aspect and is willing to do it, and they proactively forsake everything to expend themselves for God, then the church should receive them and be responsible for their livelihood—for their food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Look at those who do their duty full-time now—the church basically provides for their livelihood. The church arranges their food and housing according to an ordinary living standard, ensuring they have food and clothing and can do their duty normally. Isn’t that how it is? (It is.) But if someone is not suitable for doing a duty, and they cause disruptions and disturbances whenever they do a duty, or their stature is too small to do a duty, should the church be responsible for their livelihood if they give up their job and have no source of income? (No.) To be precise, for whom is forsaking everything a requirement? It is a requirement for those who are called by God and can sincerely expend themselves for God. These people should forsake certain things. This is because as you understand more and more truths, and as you gain more and more life entry, you will be able to see clearly, reject, rebel against, and forsake those things that affect your pursuit of the truth and are contrary and hostile to the truth. From then on, the truth of God’s words will become your life, your outlook on life, and your values. Then you will have been perfected and gained by God. Therefore, the correct practice of forsaking everything is to, step by step, forsake and give things up accurately, according to the degree to which you understand the truth and your current stature. If you blindly apply regulations and insist on forsaking things when your stature is clearly not up to it, what will be the consequence? You will regret it later and complain about God.

Look at the matter of God’s chosen people making offerings of money. What are the regulations of God’s house on this matter? Those who have only believed for a year or two are not allowed to make offerings. This is because new believers do not understand the truth, and they offer out of enthusiasm and may regret it later. For this reason, God’s house does not permit new believers to make offerings. God’s house needs to know how many years those who want to make an offering have believed in God. If you have only believed for a year or two and still do not understand the truth, and you are making the offering out of enthusiasm, then God’s house will not accept it. If you have believed for more than a year or two and understand some truths, and you feel that you have enjoyed too much of God’s love and want to offer some money to contribute to the work of God’s house, or to donate to help those who do their duty full-time and resolve the difficulties in their daily lives, then your intention is correct. But have you prayed about it? How many times have you prayed? If you have prayed three to five times or more, are certain that you are offering willingly, and will not regret it at any time even if you face financial difficulties one day—if you have reached this point, you can make an offering. This is how God’s house treats the matter of people making offerings; this is how it is practiced. So, if you want to forsake your job now, you must be clear about why you are forsaking it, whether you will have a source of income after forsaking it, and whether you will regret it later. If you will not regret it, then you can forsake your job. You must pray before you do anything; you cannot act blindly. Some people, when they see a new believer with good caliber, ask them if they have forsaken their job. If this person has not forsaken it because their family environment does not permit it, they say, “You should forsake it. You should expend yourself for God and do your duty. You should rebel against your family and rebel against Satan!” Is it good to say this? (No.) Why not? (New believers do not understand the truth and their stature is still very small. If we fellowship with them this way, they might forsake their jobs, but they will likely regret it later.) That’s right. This must be practiced according to a person’s stature, the degree to which they understand the truth, and their individual environment and background. You cannot urge or require people to forsake things. Only by practicing in this way will they not regret it later, right? (Yes.) It’s just like when someone wants to offer money. Besides finding out how long they have believed in God and whether they understand the truth, the church must also find out whether the money is their own earnings, their family’s money, or money borrowed from others. The money you offer must be what you have earned and saved yourself. Even if your nonbelieving family members find out that you have made an offering, this mustn’t be a problem; it should not cause family disputes. Only then can you make an offering. If the money you want to offer is from an improper source or belongs to someone else, and your offering will cause family disputes, would that not bring shame upon God? The church cannot accept this kind of money. There must be principles in everything you do; you cannot act blindly. You must consider whether someone should forsake everything based on their stature and environment. You must clarify whether it is appropriate for them to forsake things in this way, whether they will regret it later, and whether it is a result of understanding the truth or a momentary impulse. You cannot blindly apply regulations. Do you understand? (Yes.)

Question 7: Brother, we have often heard you fellowship that we should focus on life entry when doing our duty. I’d like to know what life entry is, what the manifestations and practices of those who focus on life entry are, and how I can determine if I am making progress in life.

Answer: The topic of life entry is quite broad, but there are principles for how to focus on it. You must remember: By what means does God save people in the Age of Kingdom? He saves people by expressing the truth. And what is the work of saving people by expressing the truth? It is the work of judgment and chastisement in the last days. As soon as we mention expressing the truth, it inevitably involves judgment. The truth itself is the word of judgment; the truth judges all, scrutinizes all, and determines all. When God expresses the truth, He is doing the work of judgment. So, on what foundation is a person’s life entry built? Life entry is when a person experiences the judgment of God’s words and comes to truly know themselves and their corrupt dispositions, thereby gradually casting off their corrupt dispositions, practicing the truth, and submitting to God, and finally being able to bear true testimony. Therefore, achieving life entry is based on experiencing the judgment of God’s words. The most fundamental aspect of life entry is that you must judge, based on God’s words, whether everything you do and say is accurate and in line with the truth. If you bring everything before God for examination and accept the judgment of His words, you will come to understand the truth more and more, understand God’s intentions more and more, know more and more how to practice the truth, and be more and more able to achieve entry into the truth reality and submission to God. This is having life entry. Life entry is going from not knowing what it means to submit to God or what it means to rebel against and resist God, to gradually understanding the truth, dissecting and coming to know your own satanic dispositions, and knowing that the root cause of your rebellion against and inability to submit to God is your satanic dispositions. And then, by accepting the truth, you cast off your satanic dispositions and become able to submit to God. This is the process of life entry. So how do you measure whether a person has made progress in life? First, by the degree to which they understand the truth and know themselves, and second, by the degree to which they practice the truth and submit to God. Knowing yourself is the initial result of life entry. The final result is that you can submit to God and no longer resist Him. This is what it means for your life to gradually grow. If your words and actions are all in submission to God and in line with His requirements, and you can bear testimony for God, has your life not grown? (It has.) Then by what means does your life grow? Do you not achieve this through experiencing the judgment and chastisement of God’s words? Tell me, we understand the truth today, so why do those in the religious world who have believed in the Lord their whole lives not understand the truth? We know ourselves today, so how is it that people in the religious world still do not know themselves? We know what it means to submit to God today, so why do those who have been pastors and elders in the religious world for many years and have preached the Bible for many years still not know what it means to submit to God? Sometimes, what they do clearly resists God, yet they still think they are submitting to Him. Why is this? (People in the religious world have not experienced the judgment and chastisement of the Christ of the last days. They do not know their own corrupt dispositions, and even if they do evil and resist God, they cannot recognize it.) That’s right. They have not experienced God’s judgment and chastisement, and they do not have the slightest bit of the truth reality, so they cannot recognize it when they are resisting God. We have some truth reality because experiencing God’s judgment and chastisement has yielded some results. If one day, we experience God’s work to the point where we ultimately achieve knowledge of Him and can bear resounding testimony for Him, then we will be people who have been perfected by God, while religious people will be eliminated and destroyed. Why will they be eliminated and destroyed? Because they do not accept God’s judgment and chastisement, and their corrupt dispositions and their nature of resisting God still exist. God has expressed so many truths in His work, and God’s chosen people have made so many movies and experiential testimony videos and put them online, yet they are blind to them. They do not recognize that this is God’s work, and they are even capable of condemning and resisting God. Tell me, how blind must they be? What is God’s attitude toward them? Is God indignant with them? Can God still be pleased with them? (No.) So they are condemned by the fact that God has expressed the truth and that God’s chosen people have borne true testimony. They deserve to die in the disasters and be punished. Such people are not worthy of pity. Is it okay if I just give a simple answer on this question regarding life entry? (It is.)

Question 8: I am moved for just a few days after hearing a sermon and then revert to my old ways a few days later. How can I make my resolve to pursue the truth last longer?

Answer: People all have this kind of state when they do not yet understand the truth. This is a normal phenomenon. In the past, when I traveled around the churches in mainland China, I had to hold gatherings for a couple of days for the local chosen people of God in every county I went to. After the gatherings, the brothers and sisters would say, “Now my heart is bright, and my stature has grown a great deal!” I would say, “How many days will this feeling of brightness last?” Some said it would last at least a month, but after just two weeks, it faded. They became spiritually downcast again, and they needed me to water them again. This is what people of small stature are like. No matter how clearly you fellowship with them in one gathering, it cannot get them to establish a foundation, because they lack too much. It’s like a person whose family has nothing and whose life is very difficult. If you give them two hundred yuan, what problem can that solve? It can’t solve any problem. Their family is too poor; the two hundred yuan is all spent after a few meals, and it’s of no use. You have to give them one or two hundred thousand yuan before they are able to live a good life. Similarly, you cannot achieve life growth just by listening to a few sermons. Life growth is achieved through a long period of experience. Without three to five years of pursuit, you cannot establish a foundation. If you don’t have a foundation, then no matter how much clarity you gain from listening to a sermon, it will only last for a few days. Isn’t that how it is? (It is.) So how can this situation be resolved? By pursuing the truth, by pursuing the truth indomitably. If you persist in your pursuit for two or three years, you will have established a foundation. At that time, the truth will take effect on you. No matter what difficulties you encounter, you will never be crushed, and no matter what suffering you encounter, you will never be negative, right? (Yes.) It’s normal that you have some resolve now after listening to a sermon, but then revert to your old ways after a few days. This is how it is for people who do not understand the truth. Don’t be discouraged. Just focus on pursuing the truth. You must be indomitable in pursuing the truth, until you truly have stature and have established a foundation. Then you will not revert to your old ways after a few days; instead, no matter how many years pass, you will not fall back into them. Do you understand? (Yes.) So what does it mean to have stature and to have established a foundation? Let me give you a few simple examples. Say that when you encounter difficulties in your duty, you know without being told that you should pray to God and seek the truth. Is this not having some stature? (It is.) Some people, when they are pruned or suffer a setback, don’t get negative and can treat it correctly. They get straight back on the horse and seek the truth from it. Is this not having stature? (It is.) There are also some believers whose nonbelieving spouse, parents, and children persecute them and try to persuade them to stop believing. But they don’t get negative and can treat it correctly. They are not constrained by Satan, and can persist in believing in God and doing their duty. Is this not having stature? (It is.) This is having stature. There are also some people who, when they do something wrong, do not need others to point it out. They recognize it as soon as they reflect on themselves, and they feel remorse and pray to God in tears, vowing that they will never do such a thing again and will never grieve God’s heart in similar matters again. These people have stature, and they can live independently. Therefore, if you have established a foundation in the truth, then no matter what difficulties, setbacks, failures, or pruning you encounter, you can treat them correctly, come before God to seek the truth, and persist in your duty. This is having stature and having a foundation.

Question 9: When I fellowship on the truth with brothers and sisters and point out their deficiencies and problems, my intention is to help and support them out of love. But afterward, some of them develop misunderstandings and live in a negative state, which makes me feel that I can’t do the work. The next time I encounter a similar problem, I don’t dare to point out their issues. I’d like to seek how I can practice the truth and help people without causing them to stumble.

Answer: Tell me, does it work to practice the truth without principles? (No, it doesn’t.) Does it work to practice the truth without wisdom? (No, it doesn’t.) And why not? (It can easily cause people to stumble.) It can easily cause people to misunderstand and become negative. Your intention is to help people become positive and face their problems in the right way, so they can resolve them and gain better and better results in their duty. Your heart is in the right place. But not only do your actions fail to achieve good results, they also bring negativity to others. This shows that you’re lacking principles, the proper approach, and wisdom in practicing the truth, doesn’t it? (Yes.) When parents discipline their children, their intentions are good, but tell me—if they lack the right methods and wisdom, can they achieve good results? (No, they can’t.) So, if someone doesn’t understand the truth and you prune them directly, they’ll become negative; you can’t just point out their problems directly. You have to fellowship on the truth principles with them, and at the same time, you have to use yourself as an example. You can say, “This is how I used to do this,” or “Here’s a mistake I’ve made before.” Then, let them discern it, ask them how it should be resolved, and have them fellowship with you. When they hear this, they’ll think, “Wow, you’re a leader, yet you’re asking me for help with your difficulties, and I’ve even helped you. This time, I’m much better than you!” In that situation, would they still become negative? (No.) They’ll be happy! After feeling happy, they’ll ponder it a bit more and think, “Wait a minute, what they were talking about is exactly the same as what I’m doing. I was just pointing out their problem and helping them, but I actually have the same problem. That means what I’m doing is wrong, too!” You see, they have come to realize it themselves. In that situation, would they still become negative? (No.) So, is this a good way to help people? (It is.) Is this not wisdom? (It is.) This is what’s called wisdom. You must have wisdom in practicing the truth; you can’t do it without wisdom. For people of small stature, you have to tell them about the mistakes you’ve made and mistaken ways you’ve done things, and ask them what to do. When they see you do this, they’ll think, “Wow, you can humble yourself and open up to me about your own ugliness, your shortcomings, and your revelations of corruption. Why can’t I do that? Why am I so afraid of losing face? Why is my vanity so strong? Today, you’ve set an example for me and made me feel ashamed of myself. I must practice in this way, too.” In the future, they’ll be able to open up about these things as well. You see, isn’t this a good way to do things? (It is.) To help people, you have to be wise and use the right methods. You must act according to their stature and use your own revelations of corruption to help and remind them, prodding them to discern and wake up. If they are someone who accepts the truth, they will realize, “I have this exact problem. By fellowshipping with me this way, you’re helping me. You have a loving heart, and you really pay attention to the methods you use.” They will then happily accept it. After accepting it, they might even say, “What you talked about today is exactly my problem. You came to help me, and I approve of and admire you for the way you’ve helped me. I will definitely change!” What do you think of this result? (It’s good.) So, when you see that someone is of small stature, never point out their problems to them directly, and especially don’t lecture them. Lecturing people is a major taboo. So how should you treat those who transgress knowingly? First, consider how many times you’ve fellowshipped the truth with them. If you’ve fellowshipped with them several times but they still don’t understand the truth, and they don’t think what they’re doing is wrong, or they even think their intentions are good and that they’re trying to safeguard the work of God’s house, then don’t prune them. If you’ve fellowshipped with them many times and they still transgress knowingly despite truly understanding the truth, and you’re certain they are consistently like this, then you can dissect and prune them directly. However, you still have to consider whether they can accept being pruned and whether they will quit. If they can’t accept it and quit, what will the consequences be? These are issues that should be considered, shouldn’t they? (They should be.) Additionally, you have to consider what kind of results they’re actually getting in their duty. Say they’re still achieving some results, but as soon as you prune them harshly they become negative and quit. Should you still prune them in that situation? (No.) You shouldn’t. But if their problems are affecting the results of their duty to some extent, how can you help them achieve results without causing them to become negative and quit? You have to pray and seek, and see what approach to helping them would be best, ensuring there are no negative side effects. If you feel, “This person looks down on me and doesn’t like me in their heart, so if I try to help them I won’t get good results. But if I find someone they like to help them, they will definitely not be negative and will listen to anything,” then you should find someone else to help them. If you’re the most suitable person to help them right now, and they won’t become negative and can accept your help no matter how you go about it, then you can help them however you see fit. In short, whatever approach you use, you must consider whether it will achieve results. This is the most important and crucial thing. Do you understand? (Yes.) Is this problem easy to solve? (It is.)