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

So how can leaders and workers do their work well? This is no simple matter. If you want to do the work of a leader or worker well, you must equip yourself with the truth. If you equip yourself with too little truth, you won’t be able to do the work well even if you want to. If you truly understand the truth, even if you don’t speak outwardly, you will have a path in your heart and know how to do the work. Understanding the truth is so crucial! As a leader or worker, if you do not understand the truth, you will definitely fail and fall, you will definitely not be able to attain God’s salvation, and you will be revealed and eliminated. Therefore, a person’s outcome and destination are determined by whether they have gained the truth. In this stage of work in the last days, God has expressed so many truths—there are now eight volumes of The Word Appears in the Flesh. Tell me, why has God expressed so many truths? It is to work these truths into His people so that they become their life. Since you have come to believe in Almighty God, if you sincerely believe in God, you must accept the truths expressed by Almighty God. If you do not accept the truth, then you do not sincerely believe in God; you are here to freeload, and you believe in God to receive blessings. Anyone with this view of belief in God is not someone who sincerely believes in God. Those who sincerely believe in God do so to gain the truth. Tell me, which is more important: gaining the truth or gaining fleshly blessings? (Gaining the truth is more important.) Then which is more important: gaining the truth or gaining money? You can get money by working in the world, and you can gain the truth by believing in God in God’s house. Which is more important: gaining the truth or getting money? (Gaining the truth is more important.) Why do we say gaining the truth is more important? (The truth can save people’s lives, but money cannot.) That is well said—put in the most down-to-earth, everyday language. If you believe in God and gain the truth, your life can be saved. If you do not gain the truth, you will die and be destroyed. Only the truth can save your life. So tell me, how does God save people? Can God save people by directly putting the truth into their hearts? (No.) God saves people by expressing the truth. If you are someone who sincerely believes in God, you should untiringly pursue the truth. Once you have gained the truth, you will not die, and you will be able to attain salvation. If you do not gain the truth, then no matter how many years you believe in God for, you will still die in the end; you cannot escape the outcome of death. Therefore, gaining the truth can save your life. These words are so down-to-earth; they are better than any doctrine. How can this be put more practically? Gaining the truth can save you from death. This sentence is very important. Repeat it three times. (Gaining the truth can save you from death. Gaining the truth can save you from death. Gaining the truth can save you from death.) God saves people by expressing the truth, but whether you can attain salvation depends on whether you yourself pursue the truth. If you pursue the truth and gain the truth, you will not die. If you do not pursue the truth and do not gain the truth, then you will still die. Therefore, in believing in Almighty God, you cannot attain salvation merely by virtue of your belief. This idea that people have about belief in the Lord—“once saved, always saved”—is just a human notion and imagining, not a fact. In this stage of His work, He saves people by expressing the truth—but if you do not accept the truth, how can God save you? God bestows the truth and life upon you so that you may pursue and gain them. Whether you can ultimately gain them depends on how you pursue them and how you pay the price. If you are unwilling to suffer and pay a price to gain the truth, and you become negative when you encounter some pruning, trials or refinement, and if you become weak and stop believing when you encounter some setbacks and frustrations in doing your duty, then that will be a problem. If you cannot suffer and pay a price to gain the truth, you will not gain the truth. So what does it mean to suffer and pay a price to gain the truth? It means being able to seek the truth, accept, and submit no matter how God treats you, or how He judges and chastises you, or tries and refines you—being able to submit and lie at the mercy of God’s orchestrations even if He has you die. And what does it mean to be at the mercy of God’s orchestrations? It means that you will not misunderstand or complain about God no matter what comes upon you, whether it is in line with human notions or not, and you will still praise God’s name and stand firm in your testimony for God. This is what it means to be at the mercy of God’s orchestrations, and God gains glory in such people. Look at how God gained testimony and glory in Job. God first bestowed immense wealth upon Job, and later took it away from him. God wanted to see what Job’s attitude was, and how he understood and treated this matter. If Job did not complain about or reject God in this situation, and could still praise God’s name, then from God’s perspective, his faith was up to standard; if he had become negative and betrayed God in this situation, then his belief in God would have been in vain and not up to standard; his fear of God and shunning of evil would also have been false. This is the work God did upon Job. Tell me, does God working in this way align with human notions? (It does not.) But when this came upon Job, he could see clearly that it was God doing it. Otherwise, how could he have said the words, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah”? How long did Job have to ponder before he could say these words? Could he have said these words when he first experienced the trial? He certainly could not have. What was he thinking in his heart when this first came upon him? “What is going on with this thing that is coming upon me? Why did these robbers suddenly take away all my cattle and sheep?” At first, Job did not understand God’s intention either, but he did not speak rashly. He thought, pondered, and reflected, and only began to speak after coming to a conclusion a few days later. You see, Job pondered for several days after this came upon him before speaking. This shows that he had a heart that feared God and shunned evil, and he did not sin by his lips. The meaning of the words he said was: “Even if God takes everything from me, I will still praise His name. I am certain that God bestowed everything upon me, and I can also see clearly that the taking of it came from God, so I ought to praise God’s name.” If someone does not see this matter clearly, they will not praise God’s name, and they will start looking for reasons in their external environment, saying, “God did not take anything away; God only bestows things upon me. This matter coming upon me is Satan taking things away from me. It is this gang of robbers who took everything from me. I must go and fight and struggle against them. I must snatch my property back from their hands, and after I snatch it back, I will then thank God.” You see, when the trial came upon Job, not only did he acknowledge that everything he had had been bestowed on him by God, but he was also certain in his heart that this matter came from God, and that it was God who wanted to take his things away. He recognized clearly that it was God who had taken all this away, yet he still wanted to thank and praise God in his heart. Thus, his thanks and praise were true and from the heart; he was not just paying lip service. Tell me, if someone did not truly thank God in their heart in that situation, could they say such words? They could not! Job could only say such words because he was truly thankful to God in his heart. Therefore, God tries people in this way precisely to test their faith. So, God wants to make people perfect in the last days. Do you have any idea how many things God will do that are not in line with people’s notions, in order to try people and reveal them? God will do many things. For example, if you have a child whom you particularly love, you can thank and praise God, saying, “This child was bestowed upon me by God! This is God’s grace. It is so good that I believe in God; the God I believe in is the true God!” When God bestows a child upon you, you are happy and you thank God. But if one day this child suddenly contracts a serious illness and ultimately dies, could you bear it? Ordinary people probably could not bear it, and they might even complain about and betray God. Such trials are not in line with people’s notions, and without true faith, they cannot stand firm! Therefore, we must earnestly equip ourselves with the truth and earnestly experience God’s work. You will have been made complete when, one day, you have stature, and no matter what God does, you can accept, submit, and have no notions about God.

What is the most basic lesson for leaders and workers? First, they must understand God’s intentions and requirements. Then what are God’s requirements for leaders and workers? God requires that leaders and workers know what their primary remit is, which work is in their primary remit and which is not, which work is core, fundamental work that must be done well, and which work is optional. Leaders and workers must first distinguish these kinds of work clearly, and then focus on their primary remit and their core work and do it thoroughly and well. Some work is not core work and does not require too much time and energy; it is enough to achieve some results and ensure there are no major problems. Any work that involves supplying the truth to God’s chosen people must be done well, and leaders and workers do not need to put too much effort into work that does not involve supplying the truth. For example, some people do not pursue the truth and are merely content to labor. You just need to give them some regulations to follow so that they can labor properly, and that is enough. They do not pursue the truth and are not truly God’s chosen people. No matter how much effort you put into fellowshipping the truth to them, they will not be able to enter into the truth reality. You would just be busy for nothing, and all your efforts would be in vain. Is that understood? (Yes.) Then what is the primary remit and core work of leaders and workers? It is watering and supplying God’s true chosen people so they can enter into the truth reality, establish a foundation in the true way, understand and practice the truth, and do their duties well to bear a resounding testimony for God. Ultimately, God will use the true testimonies of God’s chosen people to defeat Satan and determine people’s outcomes and destinations. Do you understand? (Yes.) In the movie My Belated Testimony, when the protagonist first suffered cruel torture from the CCP, he was afraid of being beaten to death, so he denied his belief in God and was eventually released. At the time, he even thought he had been wise and had stood firm in his testimony. Later, after measuring himself against God’s words, he realized that he had denied God before the devil—this was not a true experiential testimony, but a mark of failure and of dishonoring God. In fact, God did not condemn him, because his stature was small at the time and he did not understand much truth. God did not condemn him for being somewhat weak and acting that way; it was enough that he did not sell out his brothers and sisters. But through reading God’s words, he realized that he had not borne the testimony of an overcomer, so he wept bitterly in remorse. He prayed to God, asking Him to give him another chance, and saying he wanted to bear a resounding testimony for God. Afterward, he spent a decade equipping himself with the truth. After he was well equipped, one day he was arrested again. He felt that his opportunity to bear testimony for God had come, and he made up his mind that even if he were to be martyred, he had to bear testimony for God. He completely put his life on the line and directly exposed the CCP in prison. Yet, as a result, they released him. He was moved to tears, his faith in God became even greater, and he continued to preach the gospel and do his duty. After experiencing that one failure, he was able to reflect on and know himself and feel remorse; after understanding the truth, he had the faith to bear testimony for God again. God then used this final testimony to determine his outcome. His final testimony was a true testimony, and it was approved of by God. Therefore, God treats everyone fairly. If anyone later says they pursue the truth, God will look to see if they have borne true testimony. God will set up some environments for you, and secretly scrutinize how you experience things and practice. For example, when you are doing the church’s work, God will scrutinize your heart and scrutinize how you do this work—when things come upon you, can you uphold the truth principles? Can you safeguard the interests of God’s house? When you encounter antichrists, do you have discernment? Do you dare to expose them? God is scrutinizing all these things. When your family stands in the way of you believing in God and doing your duty, do you have the faith to experience this? Do you become negative and weak, thereby holding up your duty? Or, when your boss at work hinders your belief in God and tells you to pursue the world, money, fame, and gain, how do you treat this? When these things come upon you, God is scrutinizing you in secret, and all your thoughts and actions are recorded in the book of life. If you pursue the truth and seek to love God, then God will make you perfect. How does God make you perfect? He sets up all kinds of environments for you, and uses various trials to reveal you so that you can come to know yourself and equip yourself with the truth. Therefore, as a leader or a worker, the more you pursue the truth and seek to love God, the greater the trials you will experience, or in the words of worldly people, the more tribulations you will encounter. This is true. So what does your ability to stand firm in your testimony depend on? The key thing is whether you have the resolve to pursue the truth; whether you have a God-fearing heart and true faith is also crucial. What did Job rely on to stand firm in his testimony when trials came upon him? He relied on true faith. First, he acknowledged that everything he had had been bestowed on him by God; this is true faith. If he did not have true faith in God, he would have said, “Everything I have was earned through my own hard work,” but Job did not say this. He said, “Everything I have was bestowed on me by God. Who could get so much property through their own efforts?” Even if someone had said that he had got this property through his own work, Job would have denied it in his heart. He felt that he didn’t have that ability, and that all of this, everything, had been bestowed on him by God. Is this not faith? (It is.) This is one way in which Job’s true faith was embodied. It was embodied in another way as well. After the robbers snatched Job’s property, if Job had said, “The robbers took away my property. This definitely came from Satan; it could not have come from God. God is good, and He would never send a gang of robbers to rob me of my property,” would he still have had faith in God? (No.) Why do we say that? Does someone who says such things not have a problem with their comprehension? Only people whose comprehension is distorted would comprehend things this way. If you truly comprehend things that way, then do you acknowledge that God holds sovereignty over all things? (No.) God controls man’s fate, and everything about man is under God’s sovereignty. Without God’s permission, Satan cannot do anything at all. If you truly see that God holds sovereignty over all things, you will be able to acknowledge that the environment that came upon Job was permitted by God—you could even say that it was God who took things away from him. If you say it was obviously Satan that had taken them away, that is equivalent to denying that God holds sovereignty over all things, and denying that God is the Sovereign of man’s fate. Is this not the case? (It is.) If you deny that God is the Creator who holds sovereignty over all things, and you deny that man’s fate is in God’s hands, then do you still have true faith in God? Your faith would be false; it would be equivalent to acknowledging that Satan is your sovereign. Not only did Job acknowledge that everything he owned had been bestowed on him by God, but he could also see that when his property was snatched by robbers, it was actually God taking it away, and that God had allowed Satan to do this. This was Job’s true faith. Therefore, every word of Job came from his true faith in God. Job’s faith was truly great! His faith was the greatest in both the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. But in the Age of Kingdom, the faith of those made perfect by God is even greater than Job’s faith. In what way is it greater? In the Age of Kingdom, God has expressed all the truths for saving mankind, and has uncovered all the mysteries of His management of mankind. He has told us that God’s management plan runs through the entire course of human history, that all created beings are under God’s sovereignty, and that everything has been preordained by God. Everyone’s life must follow the trajectory preordained by God, right unto death. Through reading God’s words, people in the Age of Kingdom can understand the truth and see these things clearly, and so their faith is even greater. In the Age of Law, God had not yet formally expressed the truth, yet Job was able to achieve true faith in God during the Age of Law. Was this faith great? It was truly great. For two thousand years during the Age of Grace, no ordinary believers in the Lord have had such faith—even if some did, they are very small in number. Even in the Age of Kingdom, people of poor caliber generally have a superficial comprehension of God’s words, and they are constantly constrained by their notions and imaginings. They cannot comprehend that God holds sovereignty over all things, and thus their faith in God cannot exceed Job’s. Therefore, in doing this stage of work in the Age of Kingdom, God has specifically fellowshipped on the example of Job, requiring that people at least possess Job’s faith in order to stand firm. In the last days, God expresses the truth so that people may pursue it. God’s intention is that people can pursue the truth and survive. Ultimately, God uses various tribulations and trials to reveal and test people, to see whether they have gained the truth and whether they have the faith, like Job’s, to stand firm in their testimony for God. If people do not have Job’s faith, what will the consequences be? (They will fail and fall, and they may even complain about, deny, and betray God during trials.) You see, the main trial that God’s chosen people in mainland China experience is arrest and persecution by the great red dragon. If you are arrested by the great red dragon, is Satan arresting you, or is God handing you over to Satan? If you cannot see this clearly, you will not be able to stand firm in your testimony. It depends on how you comprehend it. Anyone who comprehends things in an absurd way has no faith. Can people without faith stand firm in their testimony? (No.) Why can’t they stand firm in their testimony? People without faith cannot say words that testify to God. Job was able to say, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). This is so practical! In the Age of Law, only Job could say these words, and this statement is the best testimony. If someone comprehended this in a distorted way, they would say, “God gave, and Satan has taken away. Although Satan has taken everything away from me, I will not complain about God.” If they said such a thing, could they keep themselves from complaining about God? (No.) Is there still any testimony in this? (No.) Then what is the error in this statement? (They deny God’s sovereignty, and cannot see clearly that everything that comes upon them does so under God’s sovereignty and with His permission.) The error is that this person treats Satan as God, thinking that Satan can be on an equal footing with God and that Satan can hold sovereignty over everything about them. This is not having faith in God; this is not knowing God in the slightest! Is that not so? (It is.) So, if someone with true faith in God is arrested by the great red dragon, what sort of things would they say? They would say, “God has permitted me to be arrested by the great red dragon. God has handed me over to the great red dragon, and the great red dragon is also in God’s hands. I must submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, be at the mercy of God’s orchestrations in everything, stand firm in my testimony for God, and shame the great red dragon!” This is possessing true faith, and this is standing firm in testimony. What would someone without faith say when arrested by the great red dragon? They would say, “The great red dragon has arrested me. If God does not save me, then He is not my God. Only if God can save me and deliver me from the clutches of the great red dragon will I believe that He is almighty and the true God.” If God does not save them as they imagine, they will deny Him, lose their testimony, and completely betray Him. So what do people rely on to stand firm in their testimony before Satan? Do they not have to have knowledge of God? (Yes.) Then can those with distorted comprehension achieve knowledge of God? (No.) If they do not have true knowledge of God, can they have true faith in God? (No.) Without true faith, when trials and tribulations come upon them, they will say absurd things and speak words that betray and sell out God; they will surrender to Satan and seek refuge in Satan. Therefore, it is various trials that reveal whether someone has gained the truth and whether they have true faith. Is it easy for people to stand firm in their testimony in various trials? It is not easy. Some trials are a matter of life and death. For example, is being arrested by the great red dragon not a matter of life and death? When great earthquakes strike, that is also a matter of life and death. If you do not have true faith in God, then you are doomed to die once you lose your testimony in a trial. It’s just like if you fail to stand firm in your testimony when you are persecuted by the great red dragon; although the great red dragon may release you, from God’s perspective, you have already been sentenced to death. When God’s time comes, you will be destroyed along with the great red dragon. Therefore, possessing true faith is not as simple as people imagine; you must have a certain degree of knowledge of God. Can true faith come about without a certain amount of knowledge? True faith only comes about on the foundation of understanding some truths; that is, only by having a certain amount of knowledge of God can true faith come about. If you comprehend things in an absurd way and you have no knowledge of God, then it is impossible to have true faith. Then how should you prepare if you want to have true faith in God? You still have to rely on pursuing the truth. Only by pursuing the truth and achieving an understanding of the truth can you have faith. Having faith is inseparable from understanding the truth; those who understand the truth have faith, and those who do not understand the truth have no faith. Is this not the case? (It is.) Then can people who do not understand the truth or whose understanding of the truth is too superficial do the church’s work well? Can they discern various kinds of people? (No.) People who do not understand the truth cannot see anything clearly and, no matter what work they do, they have no path. So, if someone’s understanding of the truth is too superficial, can they stand firm in their testimony when it comes to matters of life and death? (No.) People who do not understand the truth have no true faith and easily fall when trials and tribulations come upon them. Therefore, I tell you this—people who pursue the truth are saving themselves; only by pursuing the truth can they save their own lives. Is this statement doctrine or reality? (Reality.) Then what should you pursue if you want to be a good leader or worker? (The truth.) If you pursue fame, gain, and status, what will the result be? The ultimate outcome of pursuing fame, gain, and status is death. If you pursue the truth, you will be able to do the work of a leader or worker well, you will be able to gain the truth and stand firm in your testimony, and you will be able to win God’s approval.