Fellowship From the Brother Above – December 5, 2025 (Part Four)

Today, we fellowshipped on how leaders and workers can do church work well. How is this topic we’re fellowshipping about? (It is good.) There are many topics that are relevant to the work of leaders and workers, and there is so much that can be said. Let’s first talk about the more important and crucial principles, and we’ll talk about some of the details later. Why is it that false leaders and antichrists appear among leaders and workers? Many false leaders and antichrists have believed in God for quite a few years. Some have believed for seven or eight years, and some for ten or twenty. None of them are new believers, and they have listened to many sermons and read lots of God’s words. So why is it that after becoming leaders and workers, they start to walk the path of antichrists? What is the problem here? Where does the root of the problem lie? (It is a problem of their nature.) Take Paul for example—why did he not testify to the Lord Jesus but instead himself? Why did he not propagate the words of the Lord Jesus, and instead just proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus in a simple manner and leave it at that? He never propagated the words of the Lord Jesus, he never talked about his experiential understanding of the Lord Jesus’ words, and he never accepted the words of the Lord Jesus as the truth, the way, and the life. That means there is a problem with the path he walked, and it is a serious problem. If we don’t fellowship on this or dig into its root cause, it won’t be easy for people to realize this. So tell me, where does the root of the problem lie? (Their nature does not love the truth, and they never practice the truth. If someone loves the truth or is drawn to positive things, they will be able to practice the truth, and by experiencing God’s work, they will gradually develop a God-fearing heart. But because they do not love the truth, and nor do they experience or practice the truth, they ultimately walk the wrong path. All this was caused by their nature.) The problem is that their nature essence does not love the truth—this is correct. Then, given that they do not love the truth, have they ever come into contact with the truth? Have they ever heard the truth? (They have come into contact with it.) They have come into contact with and heard the truth, so why do they not accept it, but instead are resistant toward it? What is the problem here? (Hatred of the truth.) Not only do they not love the truth, but they also hate the truth, and that is why they can resist God. If they do not hate the truth, but merely don’t love the truth, then they would be just like the nonbelievers, who do things that do not involve God. But the things they do involve God and are hostile toward God, which goes to show that they are people who resist God. Just look at how vicious Paul was back then, when he resisted and condemned God! He could persecute the Lord Jesus and frantically arrest the Lord Jesus’ disciples. He was definitely an evil person; he was an evil demon! So can you now see clearly the nature essence of false leaders and antichrists? What result do we want to achieve by fellowshipping on and dissecting their nature essence? (The main intended result is to help us gain discernment and avoid being misled by false leaders and antichrists, and to warn and reflect on ourselves and avoid walking down their old path.) Right now, some leaders and workers do not follow principles when doing church work; they just do whatever they want. During gatherings, some only focus on singing and dancing, and simply do not eat and drink God’s words. Some only ever show off spiritual doctrines during gatherings. After reading God’s words and listening to others fellowship the truth, they memorize some spiritual words and doctrines, and then they preach these words and doctrines to show themselves off. They never talk about their real experiences, nor do they talk about how to reflect on and know themselves, how to discern negative things, or how to discern antichrists and false leaders. They are not pragmatic, they do not do proper work, and they are impractical in their actions. These people are all prone to becoming false leaders and antichrists. Do you believe this? (We do.) If you listen to a gathering hosted by one of them from beginning to end, and hear what they talk about, you will know what the stature of that leader or worker is. You will be able to discern whether they are pragmatic and whether the sermons they preach are practical. The things they say may outwardly seem correct, but don’t be taken in—they tend toward preaching words and doctrines and showing themselves off. They do not truly reflect on themselves, hate their own corruption, or feel true remorse. They just pay lip service and show off some doctrines so that everyone looks up to them. Do these people focus on reality? (No.) They have already gone astray. Why did I say that the experience shared by that sister in the report on church life in France was practical? Because she spoke about the specific matter in which she revealed corruption, and she exposed the intentions behind her words. After hearing this, everyone admired her in their hearts, saying, “You’re talking about real facts. You are quite simple and open, and you only speak about what actually happened!” Therefore, people who are simple and open like this are honest people. Some people say that they are corrupt, that they are a devil and a Satan. I then ask them, “You say you are a devil and a Satan, but on what basis do you say you are a devil and a Satan? Where is your corruption manifested?” They say, “I have no humanity. I am not human!” I say, “How do you have no humanity? How are you not human? Don’t speak empty, vague words. Tell me the facts.” They never tell me the facts. Is there a problem here? (There is.) What is the problem with them not telling me the facts? They do not truly know themselves. They admit that they are not human and are a devil, yet they dare not admit the things they have done. This is hypocrisy. Some people may be embarrassed to open up to others about their corruption and find it hard to get the words out; this is a real difficulty. But do you speak the truth when praying to God? You must speak the truth to God. If you find it hard to get the words out and lack the courage to open up and tell others, but you truly have remorse in your heart—desperately wishing you could slap yourself, swear oaths, and curse yourself—and you truly change afterward, then it is also okay for you to practice in this way. When I fellowship about knowing yourself, it doesn’t mean that I absolutely have to pry the facts out of your mouth and make you confess to everyone; that is not the goal. The main goal is to get you to repent and change. If you cannot repent and change—if you cannot achieve this result—then however much you admit you are a devil and a Satan, it is meaningless. Some brothers and sisters committed acts of promiscuity in the past. After they came to believe in God and read God’s words, they gained some knowledge of themselves. Not only can they open up when praying to God, but they can also open up to others, saying, “I committed acts of promiscuity in the past, and I was with several people.” God’s house didn’t ask them about these things, but they proactively laid themselves bare. This shows that they truly have a repentant heart. They have seen that they were too filthy and corrupt, and they truly came to hate themselves. Therefore, they not only can open up to God in prayer, but also to their brothers and sisters. When I see that they are honest and have a truly repentant heart, I will quickly promote them if they have borne experiential testimony. But if someone is not simple, but rather quite deceitful and wicked, they absolutely cannot be promoted, because they are not guileless or simple. Being simple means speaking the truth and speaking from the heart. Do not always spout words and doctrines, and do not always speak empty words; speaking these things is useless. Look, when I preach sermons to you, do I say anything that is theoretical or empty? I do not say anything that is theoretical or empty. I simply expose actual problems and speak the facts. This is how leaders and workers should preach sermons and fellowship the truth.

Tell me, for what purpose exactly should leaders and workers do their duty? If you think that if everyone elects you to be a leader, you will have status and can get your face seen, and that’s why you have come to be a leader, then you are in danger! Do you know what the nature of a leader or worker’s work is? To do this work is to accept God’s commission. Is accepting God’s commission a trifling matter? If you treat it as a trifling matter, thinking that by becoming a leader or worker you now have status and can stand out from the crowd, then before long you will surely stumble, and you might even be eliminated. From the day you become a leader or worker, you have actually already accepted God’s commission, and you must be responsible for the church and do the work of leading God’s chosen people into the truth reality. You must bear this burden and this sense of responsibility, bringing God’s chosen people before God and leading them into the truth reality so that they can all bear witness for God. This is the work God has commissioned you with. It is your primary remit and the obligation you ought to fulfill. This is God making an exception to exalt you. So how should you do this duty? You must pray to God and offer your all to God. How should you pray? You should pray like Moses, who said to God, “Oh God, my stature is small, and I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. How should I lead the chosen people of Israel to the good land of Canaan? And I don’t know how to convince the Pharaoh to allow everyone to leave Egypt!” Were these words spoken by Moses real? (They were.) By the time he was forty, Moses had learned all the knowledge of the Egyptians, but when God wanted to use him, he said he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue. This is a bit of a contradiction, so why do we still say that these words of Moses were real? Because these words were only spoken after he had been refined in the wilderness for forty years. During those forty years, he was far away from people, tending sheep in the most remote wilderness. Most of the time, he could only say a few words to the sheep, and over time, he stopped being able to speak very well. This is a fact. So, given this context, was he speaking from the heart when he said he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue? (He was.) If God had used Moses when he was forty, he would have been more eloquent than anyone else, but after forty years of refinement in the wilderness, he was speaking the truth when he said that he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue. Moses was able to speak the truth when praying before God. So, now that you have accepted God’s commission, how should you pray? If you have reason, you must pray like this, “Oh God, I am deeply corrupt. I have believed in You for a few years, but I only understand some doctrines and do not have any truth reality. If You give me this burden, I am willing to exert all my strength. May the Holy Spirit grant me faith and strength, and enlighten and lead me to walk the right path. If I stray onto the wrong path, do not pursue the truth, and do things that fail Your chosen people and You, may You severely discipline me and chastise me. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, I can do nothing and am nothing. May You lead me to do this duty well.” Are these not the words that people should say in prayer to God after accepting God’s commission? (They are.) Say you just offered a simple prayer, like, “Oh God, You have exalted me by giving me this commission today. I am willing to earnestly submit to You and bear witness for You”—would that be OK? (No, it’s too empty.) People view things too simply and naively! The process of entering into the truth reality is too difficult. There are many things we cannot see clearly, and we do not know what will come upon us each day. Without God’s care and protection, there’s no telling when we might be devoured by Satan and fall into temptation. It is too dangerous! Why do some people become false leaders and antichrists? Is it not because they do not love the truth? When a person who does not love the truth becomes a leader or worker, their end days have come. Can we say this? (Yes.) After gaining status, people who do not love the truth begin to do evil—they do evil day in and day out. When they have done a certain amount of evil, they become false leaders and antichrists and are revealed and eliminated, forever losing their opportunity to be saved. They have missed out on such a wonderful opportunity for salvation. The Lord Jesus made a prophecy: “And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” (Matthew 24:19). What woe is there for those who are with child and give suck? Their woe is that they missed the opportunity to be saved because they did not pursue the truth. But by walking the path of an antichrist, your woe is even greater than that of those who are with child and give suck. How do we explain this? Because you have done evil and resisted God, you will surely receive great punishment. People who do not love the truth will not pursue the truth, and even if they accept God’s work, it is impossible for them to be saved. The greatest blessing they can receive is, at most, to become loyal laborers—this is their best outcome. So, after accepting Almighty God’s work of the last days, can people who do not love the truth become people of the kingdom? (No.) Could they rule over a few cities in the Millennial Kingdom in the future? (No.) Why not? Some people say, “Ruling over five cities means managing five churches. If you manage five churches now, you will rule over five cities when the kingdom is realized. If you manage ten churches now, you will rule over ten cities when the kingdom is realized.” Is this actually the case? (No.) Then what does ruling over five or ten cities refer to? (It refers to the reward people receive, and at the same time, the degree to which people understand the truth.) Then what conditions must those who can rule over five or ten cities in the future meet? (They must understand the truth, enter into the truth reality, and achieve knowledge of God.) They must meet all these conditions. Regardless of how many truths you understand, you must at least achieve true knowledge of God and of God’s disposition, and absolutely submit to God. What does absolute submission to God mean? It means not betraying God in any environment or situation. So who can achieve this stature? Only those who have been perfected; only overcomers. Do you have this stature now? (No.) When you encounter people spreading a couple of bits of negative propaganda, you become completely confused. When an antichrist appears in the church, if you see that they are eloquent, highly knowledgeable, and shrewd, and you are unable to deal with them, then you evade them and shrink back, yielding to them and handing the church over to them. As a result, they take control of the church. Does this not mean you have failed in your responsibility? (Yes.) What is the problem here? You have lost the battle and brought shame upon God, and you have not stood firm in your testimony! Is this not somewhat akin to defecting to the enemy and betraying your own side? At that time, lacking discernment, you handed the church over to the antichrist, thinking that they had the truth reality because they were good with words. In fact, all they preached was words and doctrines and empty theories. You even thought they were a servant beloved by God, when in fact they were a false shepherd. They did not have the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and no matter how profound the words and doctrines or spiritual theories they preached were, they had no truth reality.

Tell me, what is the first thing you should look at to gauge whether someone has the truth reality? (Whether they know themselves.) That’s right. First, look at whether they know themselves, and second, look at whether they uphold the truth principles when doing their duty. If someone does not uphold the truth principles in the slightest when doing their duty and is just a slippery eel, then they are certainly a false shepherd and an antichrist. Third, look at what kind of people they like to associate with the most, and what kind of people they promote and use. If the people they promote and use are all sycophants who only know how to preach words and doctrines but have no truth reality at all, then that means that they themselves are this kind of person too. As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” People seek out their own kind. By seeing what kind of people they cultivate when they are a leader, you’ll know what kind of person they are. Is this easy to discern? (Yes.) Some people only ever cultivate sycophants. They promote whoever worships them, and they ostracize, belittle, and suppress whoever dislikes or opposes them. Are such people antichrists? (They are.) Ostracizing and suppressing people who disagree with them is the most obvious manifestation of an antichrist. Antichrists only ever cultivate sycophants. They promote whoever can grease the wheels and is beneficial to them, whoever always speaks highly of them, and whoever is most obedient to them. Do you think I’m this kind of person? (No. You are repulsed by those who cannot do the work and are constant sycophants, and you sometimes prune them severely, brother.) Are there any sycophants among the people I promote and use? (No.) What kind of people do I promote and put in important positions? I simply promote whoever upholds the principles and has the truth reality. I have promoted many people I didn’t even know before, and I never promote anyone, no matter who they are, based on my feelings or preferences. For some people, it’s just that others all recommended them, so I temporarily promoted them and used them because I couldn’t find anyone suitable at the time. After using them for a period of time, when I found that they didn’t have the truth reality, I immediately dismissed them. As long as someone has the truth reality, I will promote and use them. I would still promote them even if they once had misunderstandings or notions about me. Regardless of how they treat me, as long as everyone says that they are good, that they can uphold the principles, and that promoting them will be beneficial to the work, I will promote them. There are some people who I had dismissed previously, but who I promoted again a year or two later, after hearing that they were performing quite well. I’ve done this quite a few times, haven’t I? (Yes.) Why do I do this? This is treating people fairly according to God’s words. I promote whoever pursues the truth, and I promote whoever can do the work well. I don’t consider how they treat me; I only consider what will be beneficial to the work of God’s house and to the spread of the gospel. So, let’s say an antichrist can render some service, and the service they render cannot be rendered by an ordinary person. Should we continue to utilize them to render service? (We should.) Is this not God utilizing Satan to render service? (It is.) Then did God utilize Paul to render service? (He did.) This is God’s wisdom. So, to uphold the work of God’s house, sometimes we also have to use Satan to render service. For example, some people are particularly gifted in preaching the gospel and bring in many people, but they have committed some transgressions. We can still let them continue to preach the gospel, and start by pruning them. If they stubbornly refuse to repent, the Holy Spirit will stop working, and they will stop getting results in preaching the gospel, so we can dismiss them. Some people are eloquent but do not pursue the truth, and they only believe in God to gain blessings. We can just use their gifts by having them preach the gospel. Is this good? (It is.) Because they are eloquent, they can gain people by preaching the gospel. We can get all those who have gifts and eloquence to train in preaching the gospel first. What does training in preaching the gospel mean? It means that if they can gain people by preaching the gospel, we let them preach first. By preaching the gospel, they equip themselves with various truths, and without them even realizing it, they will come to understand the truth and know God’s work. In this way, they will get even better results in preaching the gospel. That’s why you can come to understand the truth quickly by preaching the gospel. Those who have the greatest results preaching the gospel grow the fastest in the truth. In addition, anyone who has some life entry and acquires experiential testimony during the process of training in preaching the gospel can be promoted to a leader. Those who only have gifts but no experiential testimony should be left to continue preaching the gospel to gain people. This is our principle for using people. This principle for using people accords with the truth. If you can practice in this way as a leader or worker, then you will have wisdom, and you will be able to serve God. Someone previously reported to me that a person was relying entirely on their gifts to preach the gospel, had no truth reality at all, and did not cooperate harmoniously with others—they were always making others listen to them, and others had to submit to whatever they did. I said, “You should first fellowship the truth with them and see if they can accept it. Say you dismiss them directly without fellowshipping with them—is there anyone better at preaching the gospel than they are right now? They are gifted at preaching the gospel, but you want to dismiss them because they don’t pursue the truth. Is this not too harsh? The truth has to be entered into gradually. Will they be able to pursue the truth immediately if you fellowship with them just once or twice? They have to experience failure, stumbling, chastening, and discipline before they can truly repent. Why do you not wait for God’s time? Your requirements for gospel workers are too stringent. You require them to have the truth reality, but do you have the truth reality yourself? Why do you have such stringent requirements for them when you yourself have no truth reality? Does this accord with the principles?” You have to fellowship on this problem like this, otherwise you can’t achieve any results. Some church leaders have achieved some results in their work, but they also reveal some corruption. After gaining status, they become arrogant and conceited, and ignore the ordinary brothers and sisters. Some people say, “They are arrogant and constrain people by speaking from a position of status. Shouldn’t leaders like this be dismissed?” I say, “Since you’ve discovered them revealing corruption, you should fellowship the truth with them and help them. If they don’t listen, find a way to give suggestions to them. If they still don’t listen, report it upward. They do have problems now, but if you dismiss them directly without helping them, who in the church right now could be a better leader than they are? You can’t find anyone better for the time being, so is it appropriate for you to want to dismiss them? Would that be beneficial to the church’s work?” Doing so would not be beneficial to the church’s work, so this suggestion is incorrect. You see, is this not a principled approach? (It is.)