Fellowship From the Brother Above – January 5, 2026 (Part Three)

Question 2: How should I discern whether I am serving God according to God’s requirements or according to my own ideas?

Answer: New believers are truly unable to see this matter clearly. Then are religious people able to do so? (No.) There are so many religious pastors, elders, and theologians who cannot see this matter clearly. Even if they were to believe in the Lord in the religious world for a hundred years, they’d still be unable to see clearly what it means to serve God. Tell me, did Paul know what it means to serve God? (No.) Why exactly do you say that? He believed in the Lord Jesus in word only but did not propagate the Lord Jesus’ words or experience the Lord Jesus’ words. From the time he began believing in the Lord until his martyrdom, he never propagated the words of the Lord Jesus, and his epistles do not record a single passage of the Lord Jesus’ words. Therefore, Paul did not know what it means to serve God. Then, was the One he served actually the Lord Jesus? We couldn’t see this matter clearly before, but now, through the exposure of Almighty God’s words, we can: He served a vague God, not the Lord Jesus. Today, there are also quite a few people who only nominally believe in Almighty God, but in their hearts, they believe in a God of their own imaginings, not the real Almighty God. The real Almighty God is the incarnate practical God. This is absolutely true. Apart from the shell of normal humanity, the incarnate God is entirely divine. Many of the words He speaks and the things He does come from the Holy Spirit. There are mysteries in this! Although everything He does in His normal humanity looks ordinary and normal and is the revelation of normal humanity, it is all designed and arranged by God, and there is deep significance within it. But when people see the incarnate God speaking and acting, they often feel that His speech and actions are too human, ordinary, and normal, and so they are prone to developing notions. Then, would you develop notions about the actions of the Spirit of God? (We too would, because we do not know God.) Then tell me, do people develop more notions about the actions of the Spirit of God or about the actions of the incarnate God? (The incarnate God.) That is wrong. It is actually the same. There are more mysteries in the actions of the Spirit of God. The thoughts of God are more profound than the thoughts of man, and the ways of God are more profound than the ways of man. The things the Spirit of God does that are unfathomable to man are far more numerous than those of the incarnate God—a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times more. Therefore, people have more notions about the actions of the Spirit of God. Some people say, “It is easier for people to develop notions when God becomes incarnate to work. The incarnate God speaks and acts in a normal and practical way. He looks just like an ordinary person when speaking and working, and it is all the revelations of normal humanity. One simply cannot see how divinity is at work. How could people not develop notions? How can God speak just like a human? This makes it impossible for us to believe He is God.” Therefore, people feel that God becoming incarnate to work makes it easier for people to develop notions than the Spirit of God working. Are these not man’s notions and imaginings? Satan and various evil spirits were originally in the third heaven, so tell me, did they have notions about God? (Yes.) They were cast down by God into the skies precisely because they had too many notions about God. Satan and the angels who followed it are all evil spirits. The knowledge and insight they possess are far greater than ours—we who are of mortal flesh. Yet even they cannot fathom God. They have many dire notions about God, and their resistance to God is also fierce. Therefore, if one day people saw the Spirit of God acting, even if they saw God acting in the third heaven, they would still be unable to fathom it and they would develop notions. They might even resist God just like the evil spirits and Satan. Is this not the case? (It is.) Then, in people’s notions and imaginings, no matter what God says or does, they always feel, “I must be able to fathom and fully comprehend the things God does and the words He speaks before I acknowledge Him as God and accept His actions and words. If I cannot comprehend or understand these things, I cannot accept them or submit, and I will refuse them. I will not acknowledge that He is God.” Is this view correct? (No.) Why not? (People who hold this view lack reason and do not stand in the position of a created being.) If people have such thoughts, they are in trouble, and they will be unable to accept the truth or submit to God. Therefore, one result that God’s work in the last days aims to achieve is that no matter how much you know about God, you must take your proper place as a created being. You should submit to the things the Creator does that you understand and comprehend. As for the things you do not understand or comprehend, even those that least align with your notions, you must also learn to submit. So how can this be achieved? How can you achieve submission in matters you do not understand? This requires people to understand the truth and come to fear God and shun evil. Once a person has a God-fearing heart, even if they do not comprehend or understand what God does, they can still submit. When people understand the truth and can fear God, it means their spiritual life has grown. This spiritual life both loves and fears God. Therefore, people who possess this spiritual life all have a God-fearing and God-loving heart. This is true. If a person has a heart that loves and fears God, they will not do evil or resist God. Then, what mistake are people without a God-fearing heart most prone to making? Inside, they constantly live by their corrupt dispositions. When they encounter things that are not in line with their notions, they cannot accept these things or submit to them. They say, “This is too out of line with my notions. I cannot comprehend it, and so I will not accept or submit.” Is this not a satanic disposition? (It is.) This is an arrogant disposition of Satan. This arrogant disposition can make you arrogant and self-righteous, refusing to yield to anyone. It causes you to resist and rebel against God, and in the end, it will bring ruin upon you. Countless people have failed because of this. Therefore, the reason God always requires people to know themselves is because only by truly knowing themselves can people achieve dispositional change. The only path to achieving dispositional change is knowing oneself.

To what degree must people know themselves to be considered as having met God’s requirements, and to guarantee that they will not resist God under any circumstances? What do God’s words say about this? God says: “God’s work will end when people see themselves as the sons of hell” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Revelations of the Mysteries of “God’s Words to the Entire Universe,” Chapter 30). This is one of the deepest truths. Knowing oneself and knowing God are the deepest truths. When people recognize that they are the sons of hell, they will fear and submit to God, and will no longer resist God. God also exposed the essence of mankind when He said: “Humans are none other than My enemies. Humans are the evil ones who oppose and rebel against Me. Humans are none other than the progeny of the evil one accursed by Me” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. What It Means to Be a Real Person). Can people comprehend the exposure in these words of God? If you fully comprehend these words and can acknowledge that you are the descendant of Satan, that you are a devil and that you are Satan, then you have come to know yourself as a son of hell. So, do you dare to acknowledge that you are the descendant of Satan, that you are a devil, and that you are Satan? (Yes.) If you truly know yourself to this extent, you will know what man really is, and you will be able to acknowledge from your heart that you are a devil and that you are Satan. At that time, you will be able to be at the mercy of God’s orchestrations, and even if you die one day before entering the kingdom, you will still be able to submit to and praise God. You will be able to submit no matter how you die. I have said this before, “When I have pretty much finished the work God has commissioned me with, I will submit to the death God has determined for me. This is God’s righteousness. But if I die before completing God’s commission, I will be filled with regret, and I will feel that I have let God down.” By this point, I have pretty much completed God’s commission. After I water God’s chosen people in various countries a bit more, enabling them to understand the truth and enter into the truth reality, this will count as my having completed God’s commission. At that time, God can let me die however He sees fit. This is my understanding. Therefore, when people truly recognize that they are sons of hell, they will no longer hold extravagant desires toward God. Will they still want to enter the kingdom of heaven and reign and wield power with God? (No.) When people truly know themselves, they feel that they are unworthy of entering the kingdom of heaven, and they no longer have any demands regarding their outcome and destination. Why is this? (Because they truly know themselves and have seen their essence.) This is the result achieved by knowing oneself. When I first started believing in the Lord, someone asked me, “You believe in the Lord. Tell me, what is a devil?” Based on the words in the Bible, I said, “Evil spirits are devils.” But he replied, “Man is a devil.” When I heard this, I thought it was so practical. I hadn’t realized this, but the Holy Spirit used a person to make me understand this fact. After believing in God for all these years and understanding some truths, I see this matter more clearly. The statement that “Man is a devil” is so practical. We must know ourselves to this degree. Only when we truly acknowledge that we are devils can we cast off our corrupt dispositions and be cleansed. Some people say, “God expresses the truth and does the work of salvation to enable us to know ourselves and cast off our corrupt dispositions. Does that mean we have escaped hell? Does this mean we have gained the eternal life God promised us?” Then, should people pursue eternal life in their belief in God? (Yes.) Is there a contradiction between God’s work of enabling people to know themselves and people’s pursuit of escaping hell and gaining eternal life? (There is not. If people want to escape hell and gain eternal life, they must first truly know themselves.) Some people might say, “You know yourselves to be devils and Satans, so if I also say that I am a devil and that I am Satan, haven’t I come to know myself? Can’t I then gain eternal life?” If others know themselves to be devils and Satans and they just follow suit, is this true knowledge? (No.) Is this not an imitation? Imitating others in saying these words is of no use and does not count as truly knowing oneself. So how can a person truly come to know themselves as a devil, as Satan, and as a son of hell? (By knowing themselves through God’s words of judgment and chastisement, and through the revelation of facts.) This requires a person to pursue the truth. By pursuing the truth, as you understand more truths, you will be able to fully comprehend your corrupt disposition and corrupt essence. When you have fully comprehended yourself, you will feel that you are unworthy of entering the kingdom of heaven, unworthy of receiving the blessings bestowed by God, and unworthy of receiving so much of God’s love. There is a hymn in God’s house called “Oh God! I Am Not Worthy of Your Love.” This song has a relatively high click rate. Why is that? Because when people see the title, they wonder, “Why do they say that they are unworthy of God’s love? Who could be so humble?” So they want to listen. As a result, more and more people listen to it, and the more they listen, the more they feel, “How can the words ‘man is unworthy of God’s love’ be so practical? How did they come to realize these things? These are not just nice-sounding words said casually! No one without true knowledge could say these things!” Everyone who listens to this song feels this way and finds the song to be practical, because these are words from the heart spoken by someone who truly knows themselves. Therefore, knowing oneself is absolutely crucial! Time is running out, and people must hurry to pursue the truth and achieve true knowledge of themselves. If a person doesn’t know themselves deeply enough, then they can’t cast off their corrupt disposition. In that case, a person may still rebel against and resist God, and still harbor extravagant desires and unreasonable demands toward God, making them very liable to be eliminated. If people understand the truth and truly know themselves, they will possess reason and have no demands of God. They will realize that they are unworthy of enjoying God’s love and grace, and that they are only fit to obediently be God’s slaves and render their service—they would even be willing to offer up their lives. They will feel, “Although man’s life and love are worthless in God’s eyes, this is the only valuable thing we have, so we should hurry and offer it to God. This is the sense of reason that we created beings should possess.” When people truly know themselves, they can say such words. God’s words mention Peter’s prayer: “God! I have nothing but this life. Although it is not worth much to You, I wish to dedicate it to You. Although men are unworthy to love You, and their love and hearts are worthless, I believe You know men’s intentions. And even though the flesh of men does not meet with Your acceptance, I wish for You to accept my heart” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. How Peter Came to Know Jesus). That Peter could speak such precious words is the result achieved by knowing himself. He was able to say this only after understanding many truths, constantly knowing himself to the point of seeing through to his nature essence, and achieving absolute submission to God. People cannot say these things without reaching a certain threshold of experience. Although Job also said something similar, he did not speak on the matter as thoroughly as Peter. Peter could say such precious words as “dedicating my heart and life to God.” Tell me, how many people can manage to dedicate their hearts and lives to God? Those who do not know themselves cannot. Even if you preach to them for three days and three nights, those who do not know themselves remain incapable of doing so. Why is this? Because they do not know themselves. They do not know their own measure, nor do they know what their essence really is, so they cannot say these things. If you say these things to new believers, they are prone to stumbling because they cannot comprehend them. This is because this matter is the deepest way of life, and knowing oneself must ultimately achieve this result. When people know themselves to this extent, they return to their proper place. They realize that they are just tiny created beings and nothing else, and that they are worthless in God’s eyes. At this point, people gain a sense of reason and can submit to the Creator from the position of a human being. They can achieve unconditional submission to the end, no matter how the Creator orchestrates and arranges things, and no matter how little the Creator’s actions align with human notions. Even if God were to ask them to die, they would be capable of complete submission. Tell me, if God were to have Peter go to hell, would he praise God? (Yes.) Then what would his praise of God be based on? Would his praise of God be against his will? (No.) It would be true praise from the bottom of his heart. Thus, the result achieved by truly knowing oneself is really immense! People who do not know themselves cannot truly praise God, nor can they truly submit to God. If people do not know themselves, the disposition they reveal is one of arrogance and conceit, without the slightest sense of reason. Such people are the most unreasonable and arrogant of people. They are living devils and Satans. Is this not correct? (It is.) If a person, no matter how much they talk, simply does not talk about knowing themselves, and they don’t open up and fellowship about how they reveal corruption, what corrupt adulterations, intentions, and desires are in their words and actions, or what crookedness and deceitfulness they have, and so on—if they do not talk about these corrupt dispositions of theirs at all, and instead cover them up and hide them as if they were protecting their privacy, not allowing anyone to know, can such a person gain the truth? (No.) Such people never open up about their revelations of corruption, intentions, or adulterations. If they become leaders or workers, can they bring God’s chosen people before God? (No, they will bring people before themselves.) Then are such people of the same kind as Paul? (Yes.) People of Paul’s kind are antichrists. Antichrists never know themselves. Then can we say that all those who do not know themselves are antichrists, the same old Satans and devils, and that they remain completely unchanged? (Yes.) I have said before that the simplest way to discern an antichrist is to see whether they know themselves. If a person never talks about knowing themselves, and instead only speaks of words and doctrines to exalt themselves and show off, bringing people before themselves, then they are one hundred percent an antichrist. This is the most accurate method to discern antichrists. Discernment of whether a person is a false leader is also based on whether they know themselves. If they never talk about knowing themselves and cannot do real work, then they are a false leader, a Pharisee. Antichrists and false leaders can be discerned based on whether they know themselves. Can you discern these people now? (Yes.) In the report on this New Year’s variety showcase, some brothers and sisters were interviewed. Some of them said some things that were very practical and from the heart. I say these brothers and sisters are quite good. They are able to be simple and open, and they speak from the heart and talk about their own revelations of corruption. They can thus receive God’s blessings and enter into the truth reality. However, some people spoke only doctrines and slogans. What they said sounded nice, grand, and impressive, but in reality, they did not talk about knowing themselves at all, nor did they talk about their weaknesses and corruption. Such people are hypocrites and may end up walking the path of an antichrist. Therefore, we can see what kind of person someone is through the words they speak. But in any case, through filming this program, people have personally experienced the work of the Holy Spirit. This is a good thing for new believers, and it is the beginning of life entry. Some people have begun to experience God’s work through this and started to pray to God and speak from the heart. The experiences of these brothers and sisters are precious. If they can continue to pursue the truth and experience God’s work in this way, they have great hope of attaining salvation. Those who do not talk about knowing themselves at all, do not open up about their revelations of corruption at all, and always put themselves on the pedestal of being in the position of a leader or worker, thinking they are quite good and are higher than anyone else, are in trouble. They are true Pharisees, and they are walking the path of failure of the Pharisees. Such people will only end up being cursed and punished by God like the Pharisees. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “And whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). This is God’s word, ordained by God long ago.