Fellowship From the Brother Above – October 1, 2025 (Part Six)

Question 9: When we preach the gospel and talk about The Church of Almighty God, we say, “The Church of Almighty God is the true church of the Age of Kingdom. Other churches are not true churches.” But potential gospel recipients don’t understand how to distinguish between true and false churches, or what characteristics a true church has. I’d like to ask the brother to fellowship on this.

Answer: You can’t talk so directly when preaching the gospel. If you directly say, “The Church of Almighty God is the true church, and all other churches are false churches,” potential gospel recipients are likely to take offense and won’t want to listen. They think, “Our churches are all true. Belief in the Lord Jesus and Christianity is universally accepted. How can you say our church is false?” So you can’t put it in this way when you preach the gospel; it’s too hard for them to accept. So, what’s a more effective way to put it? You should say, “No matter which church you belong to, as long as the people in that church can accept God’s appearance and work in the last days, then the Holy Spirit will be at work in that church, and it can gain God’s approval. If the church you are in has not accepted God’s appearance and work in the last days, then your church does not have the work of the Holy Spirit. In such a church, can you gain the truth in your belief in God? You haven’t welcomed the Lord, and you haven’t experienced God’s judgment and chastisement in the last days, so you can’t gain the truth, and your corrupt dispositions can’t be cleansed. That means you are not qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. In contrast, those churches that have welcomed the Lord’s return have the work and leadership of the Holy Spirit, and God’s personal provision and shepherding. In such a church, you can gain the truth, your corrupt disposition can be cleansed, and in the end, you can attain salvation and enter God’s kingdom. Therefore, although your church cannot be called a false church, it has not kept up with God’s new work, which means it has fallen behind. You could also say it has become outdated and has been eliminated by God’s work. It’s just like how, when the Lord Jesus appeared and worked, the churches of the Age of Grace emerged. At that point, weren’t the churches of the Age of Law outdated? Hadn’t they been eliminated by God’s work? So, is a church that has been eliminated by God’s work a true church or a false church? Does it still have the work of the Holy Spirit? Does it still have God’s blessing? If it has neither, then it is a false church.” Putting it that way will help them understand. And that’s just how it is. All churches, whether Catholic or Protestant, were legitimate before God appeared and worked. But after Almighty God appeared and worked in the last days—that is, after the God of truth prophesied by the Lord Jesus appeared and worked—Almighty God expressed the truth and guided people into all truths in the last days. Many people heard God’s voice, recognized Him, and accepted Almighty God’s new work. These people enjoy God’s provision and shepherding and the work of the Holy Spirit in The Church of Almighty God. They eat and drink God’s present words and experience His present work. This is what it means to enter the true church—the church where God has appeared and is working, the one personally led by the Holy Spirit. If at this time you are still stuck in the Protestant or Catholic church of the Age of Grace, and have not accepted Almighty God’s personal provision and shepherding or gained the work of the Holy Spirit, then isn’t the church you’re in an outdated one? (It is.) And if we assess an outdated church in terms of whether it is true or false, isn’t it a false church? Whether you follow Protestantism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or Judaism, you do not have the work of the Holy Spirit if you have not accepted God’s appearance and work in the last days. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, then your denomination is outdated no matter how true it is, and God does not approve of it. If you have not accepted God’s new work, then you have been eliminated and condemned. Therefore, the most crucial thing now is not whether your church is true or false; the most important thing is that you must welcome the Lord and accept His present work to be saved and perfected. Now, The Church of Almighty God enjoys the personal watering, provision, and shepherding of the Christ of the last days, Almighty God. This is God’s church. Protestant and Catholic churches are certainly legitimate, but Almighty God has now appeared to work. He is doing a newer and higher stage of work, opening up the Age of Kingdom and ending the Age of Grace. Yet you still cling to the Protestant or Catholic church and refuse to accept God’s new work. In that case, your church is no longer a true church; it is an outdated church, a church that has been abandoned and eliminated by God. Is this a good way to fellowship? (Yes.)

Question 10: When we invite potential gospel recipients to listen to sermons, we often find that they say, “We have our own churches. Believing in God is the same wherever we do it. After all, we all believe in the same God.” How should we answer this?

Answer: A potential gospel recipient says that believing in God is the same wherever they do it. Is that statement correct? If it were really the same wherever they do it, then why did the Lord Jesus prophesy that He would do the work of judgment in the last days? Why did He tell us to watch and wait for His return, and to go out to welcome Him? There is great significance and mystery in this. These prophecies tell people that it’s not enough to just believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven. The key is to welcome the Lord’s return, accept God’s work of judgment in the last days, and enter into all the truths that God requires people to enter. Only in this way can one be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven. If, following religious people’s views, thoughts, and logic, you think it’s the same to believe in God anywhere—that believing in Judaism can save you, believing in the Lord Jesus can save you, and believing in Almighty God can also save you—then you might as well just follow Judaism and believe in Jehovah. There would be no need to accept the Lord Jesus, or to welcome the returned Lord, Almighty God. People would only need to believe in one of the stages of work, and God would have no need to do three stages of work. Is that not so? (Yes.) So isn’t what they’re saying utterly absurd? Is there any biblical basis for it? Isn’t this kind of statement just a human notion and imagining? If they actually believe in God according to their notions and imaginings, what will their final end be? They will be eliminated by God. Therefore, people who have this notion are foolish virgins. When they say, “Believing in God is the same wherever we do it; we all believe in the same God,” isn’t this something an extremely muddleheaded person would say? (Yes.) What do you think about fellowshipping in this way? (It’s good.)

II. Questions Regarding Life Entry

Question 11: I want to pursue submission to Christ and love for Christ, but I know I’m still very far from this goal. I’m still full of all sorts of corrupt dispositions. How can I achieve submission to Christ and develop a heart that loves Christ?

Answer: If a person wants to achieve submission to God and love for God, they can only do so by understanding many truths. Isn’t that a fact? (It is.) Can you achieve true submission to God and love for God without understanding the truth? (No.) Why not? (Because without understanding the truth, when things happen to us, we don’t understand God’s intentions. We can’t do our duty in a way that is in line with God’s intentions, and our views on things are not compatible with God’s.) (People have many corrupt dispositions, and when things happen to them, they still act just as they want, so they can’t achieve submission to God or love for God.) You’re both right. The most crucial thing to remember is that love for God is built on the foundation of understanding many truths and coming to know Him. It’s not something that can be achieved through subjective wishes; it’s achieved by knowing God. Only when you truly know God can you achieve true love for Him. If you say you love God, what aspect of Him do you love? Do you have any knowledge of God’s disposition or His essence? How do you love God? If you can’t explain these things clearly, then your love is just too hollow and impractical. In this world, there is no love without cause, just as there is no hate without cause. Love and hate are always based on something, and there is always a cause for them. You say you love God, but what aspect of Him do you love? You have to be able to explain this clearly. You cannot love God just because you want to. Even when you love another person, you can’t just love them at will. Take finding a partner, for example. Can you love someone before you know or understand them? (No.) Why do some married couples argue and fight all the time? Why do so many people who swore eternal vows to each other before they got married end up as bitter enemies and get divorced? Why does that happen? (There is no true love between people.) It’s not easy for one person to truly love another person. When a person loves someone, there is always a basis for it; they love a certain aspect of that person. For example, you meet someone who seems kind-hearted and treats you well on the surface, and so you fall in love with them. But you don’t know why they’re nice to you or what their motives are. If one day they stopped being nice to you, could you still love them? If one day you discover that their humanity is quite evil and bad, and that they’ve done many things that go against their conscience, could you still love them? You wouldn’t be able to. So, what kind of love was your initial love for them? You loved them blindly just because you saw a few of their good points, without truly understanding them at all. As a result, as soon as their true colors and essence were exposed, you could no longer love them. You would start to argue and quarrel with them, and even physically harm them. Why is this? It’s because people have too few lovable qualities, and what few they do have are not worth mentioning. You could say that corrupt mankind has very few lovable qualities. After a while, the love between people fades, and when it’s gone, they become enemies. A person only has lovable qualities once they possess the truth reality and their corrupt dispositions have been cleansed. People who have not gained the truth have too few lovable qualities and too many hateful ones. Therefore, it’s quite normal for people to be unable to truly love one another. But God is holy and righteous; God’s essence is the truth and is love; and God is the most lovable One. So why can’t people love God, the most lovable One? Let me tell you, God is the most lovable One in every respect. Have you truly come to recognize this? If you haven’t, can your love for God even begin to develop? (No.) If you say you love God but don’t have any cause for it, then this is not genuine. True love is built on a foundation of genuine knowledge of God. So, what knowledge of God do you have? On a doctrinal level, you might say, “God is the truth, and God is righteous and holy, so I love God.” This makes logical sense for sure, but can you in fact truly love God from your heart? If you can truly love God, what are the manifestations of your love for Him? Are they submission and fear, or being considerate and loyal? If you have none of these, and you only say the word “love” with your mouth, then your love for God has no practical manifestations, and nor do you have a sincere heart that loves Him. You are not a person who truly loves God. What foundation is a sincere heart that loves God built on? It is built on recognizing that there is so much that is lovable about God. If a person doesn’t recognize how lovable God is, they can absolutely not achieve sincere love for Him. Once you recognize what’s lovable about God, you will say, “God is so lovable! I’ve come to know His righteousness and holiness. Humans are not righteous or holy; only God is holy and righteous. God’s holiness and righteousness are so lovable, His faithfulness is so lovable, and His true love for mankind is so lovable. Since God is so lovable, I must love Him and satisfy Him.” You must know what God has and is in order to have true love for Him. If you can progress from knowing God’s disposition to knowing His essence, then your knowledge of God will deepen and your love for Him will deepen accordingly as well. If you don’t know God’s disposition and what God has and is, then no matter how much you say you love God, it will be useless; it won’t be genuine. For example, you say, “I love God now, and I don’t love a single corrupt human.” So where are the practical manifestations of your love for God? Are you devoted in your duty? Can you forsake everything for God? Can you be considerate of God’s intentions and suffer a little for His work? If you were to encounter various trials, could you submit unto death? If you were to become seriously ill and were about to die, could you still love God? If a disaster struck—say, a flood destroyed your house, or your nonbelieving spouse and children died in a pandemic—could you still love God? If these trials and refinements were to befall you and you weren’t able to love God, and your heart was filled with misunderstandings of and complaints about Him, then if you still said you loved God at that point, would that “love” be real or fake? (Fake.) Therefore, trials are what best reveal a person. When things are going well, you may say, “I can submit to God, I can love God. God is the most lovable.” But when a disaster truly strikes, you won’t be able to say such things. You’ll start pleading with God, “Oh God, please heal my husband! Please save my son! Please save our family! Let my whole family enter the kingdom of heaven!” If God were to tell you, “They are disbelievers and they do not love the truth, so I will not save them,” could you still love God? You wouldn’t be able to. When what God does doesn’t align with your notions or doesn’t satisfy some of your demands, you become dissatisfied, and you can’t bring yourself to love God. Therefore, if you say you love God when things are going well, those are false words; they aren’t genuine. When you truly encounter a trial such as your nonbelieving relatives dying and you can still say, “It is God’s righteousness that He has taken away my nonbelieving relatives. God’s actions are always principled and always contain His good intentions. Though I don’t understand His intentions, I am willing to submit to His orchestrations and arrangements. I will still love and pursue God”—if you can truly say such things, then your love for God has become real and practical. Isn’t that so? (It is.)

Question 12: In real life, in what key ways should we experience God’s work to achieve knowledge of God?

Answer: Knowing God is the most profound lesson. Achieving knowledge of God is inseparable from real life. Every single thing that happens in real life is part of God’s orchestrations and arrangements, preordained by Him. Do you believe this? (We do.) You could say that there isn’t a single thing that isn’t orchestrated and arranged by God, but people fail to recognize His orchestrations and arrangements in many things. When things happen that align with your notions and go the way you want, you think they’re good things, arranged by God. But when some things don’t align with your notions or don’t go the way you want, you think they’re not good things and not arranged by God. Is that viewpoint correct? Tell me, is it not the case that whether something aligns with your notions or not, it has been arranged by God? (Yes.) Then why do you call some things good and others bad? This is what it means to not know God. It’s precisely because you don’t know God that you would say such things. If you knew God, you would say, “God’s good intentions are there even in bad things, and you can see God’s deeds in them. In this matter that doesn’t align with my notions, I have seen God’s good intentions and His wisdom. I see that there are mysteries in everything God does, and they are all good things!” This is what it means to have knowledge of God. If all the things that happened to you were in line with your notions, could you learn any lessons from them? Could you come to know God through them? Even if you could gain a little knowledge, it would be a very simple and merely perceptual understanding, and not true knowledge at all. But when things happen that don’t align with your notions, there is much truth to be sought. The more what God does goes against your notions, the more there is truth to be sought in it. These matters are your entry point for getting to know God, and where you can make breakthroughs in your knowledge of Him. If you seek the truth in these matters, you can achieve the result of understanding the truth and knowing God. This is the path to knowing God. Do you understand? (Yes.) For example, some people aren’t elected as leaders or workers, and they say, “I’m more eloquent and gifted than others. Why didn’t my brothers and sisters elect me to be a leader or a worker?” When this happens, they must seek the truth. What if they say, “They didn’t elect me—is it because they lack good judgment? Is it because they can’t discern things?” What do you think of that way of understanding things? (It’s incorrect.) On the surface, this might seem correct. Some people truly do have poor judgment and can’t see things clearly; they don’t recognize talent. But even if people can’t see things clearly, is it possible that God cannot see things clearly? You weren’t elected—is this not under God’s sovereignty? (It is.) Then why weren’t you elected? At its root, the issue is one of God’s timing. Not being elected now means it is not yet God’s time for you. This shows that right now, you are not suitable to be a leader or worker. When it is truly God’s time for you, no person, event, or thing can hinder God’s will from being carried out. Isn’t that how it is? (It is.) So when this happens, you must reflect on yourself. Don’t find fault with others and say, “My brothers and sisters must be blind and lacking in discernment. How could they not see a great figure such as me, so gifted and with such good caliber? Why didn’t they elect me?” To think this way is wrong. In fact, this matter comes down to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and since it’s not yet God’s time for you, He hasn’t arranged that environment for you. Isn’t that how it is? (It is.) Let me give you a personal example. I started believing in God in the Recovery Stream. At that time, the church had leaders and deacons, but they didn’t do any real work and didn’t have the truth reality; they could only speak words and doctrines. On top of that, they didn’t provide the brothers and sisters with any books for spiritual devotion. Nobody had any words of God to eat and drink—not even a hymnbook. They were completely unable to lead God’s chosen people to achieve life entry. At that time, the Holy Spirit revealed to some people that I could serve as a leader. However, they were indifferent toward this idea, and none of them put me forward to be a leader, because I had joined the church later and wasn’t as senior as those leaders and deacons. This continued until the Holy Spirit arranged an environment in which the leaders and deacons at the time were arrested by the CCP. Many of them were sentenced to imprisonment. God used this environment to remove them, and then the Holy Spirit testified to me and I started to be a leader. You see? It depends on God’s timing when a person becomes a leader, doesn’t it? (It does.) If I had seen they had problems back then and tried to push myself forward, would that have been appropriate? (No.) Everything God orchestrates and arranges is excellent. As long as you submit and seek the truth, you will be able to see God’s deeds and understand His intentions. No one can stop what God wants to accomplish, and it’s useless to fight for something God hasn’t permitted. So, the Holy Spirit directly testified that I was being used by Him; it wasn’t something I fought for myself. So, if you’re not elected as a leader or worker, would you still fight for it? Would you still complain? Everything has God’s timing. Submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangements is what people ought to practice.

So, where does one begin in knowing God? Start with things that don’t align with your notions. In such matters, learn to seek the truth. The more you seek the truth, the brighter your heart will become, and the more certain you’ll be that these matters come from God. Then you will have faith in and submission to Him. Another aspect is to seek the truth in the process of doing your duty. When you reach the point of understanding the truth and being able to act according to principles, then you will have knowledge of and submission to God. In my work, I often reflect on myself: “What have I done that doesn’t accord with God’s intentions? Have I hindered anyone’s life entry while I have been working? Have I hindered the cultivation of any talented person? Have I become indebted to anyone? Have I cleared out or expelled anyone in error?” I frequently reflect on these things. I will not hinder anyone’s future, nor will I harm anyone. By the time God’s work is finished, I will ensure that I’m not indebted to anyone and that my conscience will be clear. This is my bottom line. If there are false leaders, antichrists, or evil people causing disturbances in the church, then I must deal with them according to principles, because this affects whether most of the people in the church can walk the correct path of pursuing the truth. Dealing with antichrists, evil people, and false leaders is necessary to protect the interests of God’s chosen people and to safeguard the work of the church. Every time arrangements are made for the church to cleanse these people away, the decision is mine. I must make this decision. I don’t do these things because God is urging me, but based on God’s words and the Holy Spirit’s moving within me. I only act when I see the time is right and am certain it must be done. And what about when I fellowship and preach to you? That is also based on the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I fellowship on whatever aspect is most practical and most beneficial to God’s chosen people. For example, the fact that preaching the gospel requires propagating God’s words is something that must be fellowshipped on. Matters related to doing your duty must also be fellowshipped clearly. There are many details to the aspect of truth of doing your duty: Doing your duty is the responsibility and obligation of a created being and has nothing to do with your outcome; it is only by doing your duty that you can gain the truth and be perfected by God; those who don’t do their duty can never be perfected; the religious way of belief is to not do a duty and just be a part-time believer, and so people believing in this way will never gain the truth; the key to believing in God is to gain the truth, and the way to gain it is to do your duty; and furthermore, why you can gain the truth by doing your duty, and why you can’t gain the truth or be perfected by God if you don’t; and so on. Most people understand these things to some extent, but not with great clarity, so I have to think about how to fellowship on this aspect of the truth with you, to explain all these details thoroughly. It just so happens that today I’m talking to you about these things. How was this fellowship? (Good.) Remember, in believing in God, pursuing and seeking the truth is incredibly important!