Fellowship From the Brother Above – July 15, 2025 (Part Six)

Question 5: How can one discern the difference between true leaders and false leaders? How can one become a good leader?

Answer: Discerning the difference between true leaders and false leaders is absolutely critical. It involves many truths, and it’s a major issue and a key problem concerning life entry. If a person cannot discern the difference between true leaders and false leaders, do they have any discernment? Can they tell right from wrong? (No.) If they can’t tell right from wrong, can they practice the truth accurately? Can they truly submit to God and know God? (No.) Do they possess the truth reality? (No.) Can they do their duty in a way that is fully up to standard? (No.) Why not? If they cannot discern the difference between true leaders and false leaders, they cannot discern the erroneous practices, mistaken views, and wrong principles of practice of false leaders. So, is it possible for them to be misled and take the wrong path? (Yes.) People who cannot discern false leaders, false workers, antichrists, evil people, or disbelievers can be misled, used by Satan, and fooled and deceived. If a false leader fellowships this and that with them and arranges for them to do this and that, their inability to tell right from wrong means they may be led down a wicked path by the false leader, and may follow them in going astray. In that case, there’s likely no hope for them to attain salvation and be made perfect. Therefore, people who cannot discern false leaders and false workers are in danger. They can easily be misled and used by Satan to take the wrong path. Would you say that there is such danger? (There is.) Why are there so many in the religious world who cannot hear God’s voice? It is because they lack knowledge of the truth, cannot discern religious pastors, cannot discern the Pharisees, and cannot discern between true shepherds and false shepherds. In particular, they idolize and blindly believe in religious pastors, treating them as their spiritual parents and listening to what they say in all matters. So, when God appears and does His work, they listen only to the words of religious pastors and Pharisees, not to God’s voice, and they do not accept God’s work. As a result, they take the wrong path and are eliminated by God. So, who is to blame for this? They have only themselves to blame: for following the Pharisees, for their lack of discernment, and for their own blindness. Therefore, if people lack discernment, it is not easy for them to attain salvation, whether they are in the religious world or in the house of God. Is this not right? (It is.) So, is it important to learn to discern true and false leaders? (It is.) So, how can one discern false leaders? Firstly, can a false leader do a good job of the primary duty God has commissioned them with? (No.) Why are false leaders characterized as false? It’s precisely because they cannot do the primary duty God has commissioned them with. Some church leaders spend their days busying themselves with general affairs tasks, resolving this or that difficulty for people, fellowshipping with people about whether they should find a spouse or forsake the world. As a result, after the fellowship, the brothers and sisters have gained no life entry and don’t know how to practice the truth. When people ask these church leaders what truths one should understand in faith, how to escape Satan’s influence, how to know oneself, how to cast off corrupt dispositions, how to achieve submission to God, and how to complete God’s commission to follow God’s will and enter the kingdom of heaven, they are unable to answer these substantive questions involving the truth. They only know how to handle external matters, but they possess none of the truth that God’s chosen people should understand and none of the truth reality they should enter into. They simply don’t understand these things. This is what it means to have no truth reality. They can only rely on doing general affairs tasks to try and make people see that, as leaders, they spend their days busy, when in fact, they aren’t doing any substantive work, nor do they have life entry. The path they walk is that of Paul. Paul preached the gospel for two or three decades, gained many people, and established many churches, but he had no life entry, and, in the end, he had no knowledge of God. The more he worked, suffered, and paid the price, the more arrogant and self-righteous he became. He felt even more strongly that he deserved a crown and a reward, and that if God did not grant him a crown, then God was not righteous. He even felt that for him to live was christ. He wanted to take the place of the Lord Jesus, wanting people to emulate, exalt, and worship him. Why did Paul’s extensive work lead to such a consequence? Why, instead of leading him to know God and develop a heart that could fear God and shun evil, did his work make him even more arrogant, to the point that he even felt that for him to live was christ, and that he should be emulated, exalted, and worshiped? What kind of problem was this? This all demonstrated that Paul walked the wrong path. He didn’t walk the path of pursuing the truth. Therefore, the more work he did, the more he felt he deserved a crown and a reward, and that he should be emulated, exalted, and worshiped. You see, this is the result of believing in God but taking the wrong path. Therefore, if people just rely on their gifts in their work and do not walk the path of pursuing the truth, they will naturally turn out like Paul—becoming second, third, or fourth Pauls, and so on. Those who do not pursue the truth are all Pauls. The pastors of the religious world are all Pauls, great and small. They are all antichrists. These people, in their faith and duties, not only fail to attain salvation but instead become antichrists, chief sinners who resist God, and mortal enemies of God. This is what is caused by people not pursuing the truth. This is the outcome, the end, for those who do not walk the path of pursuing the truth. Do you see this clearly now? (Yes.) If false leaders do not pursue the truth and have no truth reality, yet still serve as leaders, won’t they, over time, embark on the path of antichrists? (They will.) What similarities are there between false leaders and antichrists? First, false leaders have no truth reality, and neither do antichrists. They are the same in this. Second, false leaders do not know themselves or understand the truth. They act solely based on their notions and imaginings and just busy themselves with general affairs tasks. Antichrists are the same. Although they may visibly suffer a little and pay a price, they do not know themselves or pursue the truth. They just do some general affairs work, and they constantly speak words and doctrines to mislead people, and they constantly show off and bear witness to themselves. Therefore, false leaders and antichrists have many similarities. So, what is the difference between them? Antichrists have great ambitions. They want to establish independent kingdoms and form their own factions. They want to be kings and hold power themselves, and they want all Christians to obey and worship them. The ambitions and desires of an antichrist are greater than those of a false leader. People like Paul, who are highly gifted and learned, are capable of committing the evil deeds of an antichrist and establishing an independent kingdom in the church if they work for many years. As for some people, although they have such ambitions, they have few gifts, little eloquence, and not much knowledge. They cannot do any great work or mislead people, so at most, they are just false leaders. This is the difference between antichrists and false leaders. But in essence, neither type pursues the truth. They do not have the truth reality or the slightest knowledge of themselves. They work based on their own will, notions, and imaginings. The more they suffer and the more work they do, the more they think they’re so great, that for them to live is christ, and that they are on an equal footing with Christ. In the end, they become chief sinners who resist God. You see, this is the consequence of not pursuing the truth. Do you see this matter clearly? (Yes.) In the last performance showcase, a sister from India shared a very good experiential testimony. Her father was a pastor of the religious world. After she accepted Almighty God, her father opposed, disturbed, and restricted her. He even said something most shocking: that he himself was Satan. When the sister heard her father say this, she was absolutely shocked. She said, “My father has been a pastor in the religious world for so many years, yet he openly said that he is Satan. This is terrifying! I haven’t seen his true colors all these years, but now he’s finally showing them! He is Satan, a hypocritical Pharisee! I can no longer listen to him. I must draw a clear line and cut ties with him!” Through what her father said, this sister gained discernment, and without him saying this, she could have easily been misled by him. You see, a person who has been a pastor in the religious world for many years can actually say such a thing. It’s clear that people who do not pursue the truth resist God just as Satan does! Tell me, what is the final outcome for leaders and workers as well as pastors and elders in the religious world, who do not pursue the truth? They will all become antichrists. They all resist God. Can we put it this way? (Yes.) Then what kind of person, after becoming a leader or worker, can cast off their corrupt disposition and attain salvation and be made perfect? (Someone who pursues the truth.) Only those who pursue the truth can attain salvation and be made perfect.

The questions, “How can one discern the difference between true leaders and false leaders? How can one become a good leader?” are good questions, and what I’m fellowshipping on now relates to them. Tell me, what kind of person can attain salvation and come to truly submit to and know God? Someone who pursues the truth. And what kind of person can pursue the truth? Only someone who loves the truth can pursue it. When things befall people who love the truth, they are able to seek the truth, and to view people and things and do their duties according to the truth. In this way, they gradually come to understand the truth and gain discernment; they also gain knowledge of God, and their service can then be in accordance with God’s intentions. Is this not so? (It is.) Therefore, if you want to discern false leaders, you must pursue and understand the truth. If you don’t understand the truth, you won’t be able to discern them. So, how does one become a good leader? This, too, can only be achieved by pursuing and understanding the truth. Let’s briefly talk about the specific process of this. When I first accepted God’s commission to lead His chosen people, I pondered, “What work must I do to lead God’s chosen people? What work is the most critical and fundamental?” Without a doubt, it is to lead God’s chosen people to eat and drink God’s words and enter into the truth reality. Is this not the most critical and fundamental work? (It is.) If a person just focuses on speaking their own notions and imaginings, on speaking their own set of spiritual theories, is that right? (No.) This is wrong and off track. Therefore, when leaders and workers hold gatherings, it is to lead God’s chosen people to eat and drink God’s words, to fellowship on their knowledge of God’s words, and to dissect people’s deviations and problems. Gradually, brothers and sisters will be able to understand the truth and know themselves, and they will be able to understand God’s intentions and His requirements for people. Their difficulties and problems will then be progressively resolved. In this way, people can learn to fulfill their duties and complete God’s commission, and they can also focus on their own life entry to achieve knowledge of and submission to God. The effect this achieves is twofold. Additionally, after each gathering or sermon, you can ask everyone if they have understood any aspect of the truth from it or if their problems have been resolved. If you haven’t resolved the actual problems and difficulties of God’s chosen people or pointed out a path for them, and you’ve just spoken your own spiritual theories, are you doing the work God has commissioned you with? Are you working according to God’s requirements? (No.) You are working entirely according to your own will, and you aren’t doing the work God has commissioned, not the work of supplying the truth that is most needed for the life entry of God’s chosen people. You haven’t done any actual work. That means you’re a false leader! If you say you’re not a false leader, then what results have you achieved after watering the church for several years? Through your watering, have the chosen people of the church come to know their corrupt dispositions? Have they cast off their corrupt dispositions? Do they understand the principles of practice for doing their duties? Do they know how to practice the truth? If you can achieve these results in watering the church, then as a leader, you have done actual work. If we were to give the performance of your duty a grade, it would at the very least be a passing grade, considered to be up to standard. If you have spent several years watering a church and none of these results have been achieved—not one of God’s chosen people has come to know themselves, not one has cast off their corrupt disposition, not one knows how to practice the truth, and not one has come to truly submit to God—then the work you have done is not up to standard and hasn’t produced the necessary results. Are you not then a false leader or a false worker? (Yes.) This is like a high school teacher who teaches students for three years, but in the end, not a single one of them gets into college. Their success rate is zero. This means their teaching has borne no fruit, that they are not up to standard, and that they are a false teacher who harms people. It’s the same with doing work in God’s house. Are God’s chosen people in the church you’re leading able to know themselves? Do they know how to practice the truth? How many truths have they come to understand? What can they forsake, what can they let go of, and what can they rebel against now? If they can’t forsake anything, if they can’t discern or forsake their spouse when they obstruct their faith, if they can’t break free from any worldly entanglement, and if they can’t do any duty, and they have no testimony whatsoever, this shows that your watering of the church has yielded no results. As for those who are effective in watering the church, after they have watered the church for a year or two, or two or three years, a third of the people there are able to forsake everything to do their duties, they are able to fellowship on their self-knowledge and have gained some knowledge of God, their stature gradually grows, and the things they forsake become ever more numerous and significant. They can even forsake things that ordinary people cannot. Doesn’t this prove that they understand the truth? So, if leaders and workers water the church well and can lead God’s chosen people into the truth reality, then at least a third of the people in the church will be able to expend themselves for God and understand some truths. When it’s time to preach the gospel, there will be a few people in the church who can refute the notions and fallacies of the religious world, accurately explain the Bible, and testify to the words of Almighty God so that people can hear God’s voice. The more they preach the gospel, the better the results, and in the end, they become experts in preaching the gospel. You see? Is this not the effect achieved when a good leader waters the church? (It is.) And what about when a false leader waters the church? After two or three years, there won’t be a single person in the church who can truly forsake things and expend themselves; most people in the church will just be content with preaching the gospel a little in their spare time, there’ll be no one who can truly know how to testify, and very few people will be gained. What do you think causes this? Does this have anything to do with the leaders and workers not doing actual work? (It does.) It has everything to do with it! If a false leader who doesn’t do actual work or pursue the truth is elected in a church, can the Holy Spirit still work? He cannot. False leaders and false workers are absurd and do not pursue the truth, and in gatherings they only speak words and doctrines. How could the Holy Spirit possibly work in such a church? In that case, it’s impossible for anyone in that church to be able to shoulder God’s commission, and the brothers and sisters won’t achieve any results in their duties. Therefore, how many people in a church can forsake things and expend themselves, how many can understand the truth, and how many are devoted in their duties—all of these things depend on whether the church’s leaders and workers pursue the truth and have life entry. These things are intimately related. If a leader or worker often waters brothers and sisters with the truths of preaching the gospel, so that everyone can understand the truth and train themselves to preach the gospel, then after two or three years of such training, the results of the church’s gospel work will certainly get better and better. At first, they might gain one person a month. After two months, they might gain two or three people each month, and after a few more months, they might gain four or five people each month. The results will gradually increase. What does this show? It shows that the leaders and workers of this church are up to standard. Just look at any church where there isn’t a single person who can shoulder God’s commission; you can be sure that its gospel work will remain fruitless and never get off the ground. It fails to get going in the first year, and it fails to do so in both the second and third years that follow. In the end, great disasters arrive. There are power outages and internet blackouts, and no work can be done at all. In that case, can there still be anyone in that church who attains salvation? (No.) Under normal circumstances, every church must have a few people who can do their duties, practice the truth, be considerate of God’s intentions, and seek to submit to and love God. They are motivated in their pursuit of the truth, and whenever they have a problem, they seek the truth. When they finally come to understand the truth, they are able to stand firm in their testimony and shoulder the work of the church. When a church has a few such people serving as pillars, God works in its midst, and that church is then called the temple of God. These few people who act as pillars are the pillars in God’s temple. They are the most blessed, the ones God has determined to save and make perfect, the ones who are gained by God, and the ones who have God’s promise. Their blessings are ordained by God, and no one can take them away. Therefore, once a person becomes a pillar in the church, they are approved of by God and will naturally be protected by Him. These pillars can be said to be the apple of God’s eye. The apple of God’s eye is most precious. No one dares to touch them, and no one can take them away. Satan dares not work on such people, and no one who wants to harm them can succeed. All the work in the church serves the spread of the kingdom gospel. If someone acts as a pillar in every aspect of the work—meaning that without them, the work cannot be done, but with them, it can achieve results—and they can follow God’s will, then that person is a pillar in the church. We often talk about pursuing becoming overcomers. So, who do “overcomers” refer to? They refer to these people in every church who act as pillars. These people are the overcomers. Not all people in the church are truly blessed, but those who act as pillars are. So, are false leaders pillars? (No.) Are antichrists pillars? (No.) Are evil people pillars? (No.) They are termites, people who demolish and sabotage God’s work. When false leaders, antichrists, and evil people come to God’s house, they do so in order to demolish and sabotage. They are troublemakers. Therefore, once God’s chosen people have stature and discernment, they will see clearly that these are false leaders, antichrists, and evil people. They will say, “We’ll reject them and remove them.” These false leaders, antichrists, and evil people will then be eliminated, and their end will have come. If God’s chosen people have no discernment of these people, then their end has not yet come. When the majority of people can discern and reject such people, their end will have truly arrived. The most wicked, reactionary, and God-resisting regime in this world is the CCP. Would you say the CCP’s end has come? (Yes.) And how has the CCP’s end come about? (Its end came when the people all saw through to its essence.) The CCP’s actions on the international stage in recent years have shown the people of all nations that it is the most wicked, despicable, and God-resisting satanic regime. The CCP is best at deception and lying. Now, the CCP has become a public enemy, hated by all. The people of all nations have seen its true face clearly, and they all oppose it, hate it, and curse it. Its end has come. This has all been caused by its numerous evil deeds. As the saying goes, “Persisting in evil brings about self-destruction.” So how does the end of false leaders, antichrists, and evil people come about? It is also when God’s chosen people gain discernment of their actions, see through to their true colors and essence, and reject them that their end comes. Initially, people might still support or even worship them, but later they gradually discover that something’s not right. What they say doesn’t seem to accord with the truth; their actions are always driven by their own motives, and they always do their duties according to their own will. The more people look at them, the less truth reality they see in them, and the more false they find them to be. God’s chosen people then see clearly that such people are false leaders, antichrists, and evil people, and they begin to reject them. You see, aren’t false leaders and antichrists walking the same path as the CCP? They are all exposed and revealed because they have committed so much evil. Is it not true that their end comes when people gain discernment of them? (It is.) I had planned to find time to fellowship specifically on the truths of discernment, but I didn’t expect that not long after I began fellowshipping with you, someone would raise this type of question. This shows that the stature of God’s chosen people around the world has grown to this point, so it’s time for me to fellowship on this aspect of the truth.