Fellowship From the Brother Above – February 2, 2026 (Part Five)

Question 9: At present, when following up on the work, some leaders and workers and testimony directors usually just ask the brothers and sisters about the status of their work and push them to make progress. However, they are unable to discover problems in the work, much less resolve them, which leads to members of the gospel teams becoming less and less proactive in their duty. How should we cultivate their ability to discover and resolve problems?

Answer: To resolve this problem, you must remember one phrase: Nothing can be done without prayer. What does this mean? It means that no matter what work you do, you must pray to God and seek the truth. Tell me, if someone—regardless of what duty they do—doesn’t bear a burden in their heart, what does this show? It shows that they no longer have a relationship with God in their heart. When a person has no relationship with God, there is no place for God in their heart, and they are not considerate of God’s intentions. Can such a person bear a burden in their duty? (No.) Tell me, who in a family bears the burden for providing three meals a day? (The parents.) Because the parents are the heads of the household, they think, “How much rice is left in the house? How many days will the vegetables last us? I must hurry up and earn money to buy more; we can’t let the food run out!” Parents bear this burden. Similarly, if leaders and supervisors bear a burden in the gospel work, they will get anxious and worried when they see that the results of the gospel work are poor, and they will say to the gospel workers, “Our results of preaching the gospel have slipped a bit this month. We haven’t done our duty well, and we’re indebted to God! We must pray to God together and repent to Him, ‘Oh God, we are not getting good results in preaching the gospel now, and this is all because we are too far from You, lack a burden, and are not considerate of Your intentions. We are willing to repent. May You lead us to do our duty well.’” If people are not considerate of God’s intentions, then it doesn’t matter what work they do—their results will get worse and worse, their enthusiasm will dwindle, they will become increasingly cold, and they will become more and more perfunctory in doing their duty. If people realize that the poor results of the gospel work are caused by them being too far from God and not bearing a burden, then they must immediately organize the gospel workers to pray to God. They must pray to God, praise God, read God’s words, and fellowship on the truth every day. Once they have fellowshipped to the point of having true knowledge of themselves, they will bear a burden and feel, “We cannot be indebted to God. We must do our duty well. God has expressed so many truths to supply us, to lead us into the truth reality, to enable us to gain the truth, the life, and eternal life, and to bring us into God’s kingdom. God’s salvation of us and His love for us are too great. We must repay God’s love! We cannot do much for God; we can only preach the gospel and testify to God. If we still cannot do our utmost to do this duty well, then we will not have repaid God’s love, and will have let God down very badly! If that is the case, we are unworthy of living and too ashamed to face God!” When people’s knowledge reaches this level, do they bear a burden? (Yes.) So how do potential gospel recipients come about? Do they just appear automatically once people gain this knowledge? (No, we have to proactively look for them.) Once people bear a burden, it is easy for them to find potential gospel recipients. They will give their all to find them, rather than just casually looking around. When people bear a burden, their efficiency changes. They get serious, and once they find a potential gospel recipient, they will not let go of them. Therefore, whether or not you bear a burden in doing your duty is the most crucial thing. When people frequently pray to God and seek the truth, and achieve a normal relationship with God, they will bear a burden in their hearts for God’s commission. They will feel that they must do their duty well to repay God’s love, and that if they still do not do their duty earnestly, and still do not preach the gospel and testify to God well, then they will be too indebted to God. With this kind of mindset, they will have drive and bear a burden in doing their duty. They will then think of ways to do their duty well and to preach the gospel to bring more people before God. They will become serious and responsible in their duty, and the results of their work will naturally improve. If they have no drive, then even if they go out to preach the gospel, they will just be doing external work and will not achieve results. It is just like when people go into battle—it doesn’t work if they lack drive. They will always want to desert because they are afraid of death! So how can people’s drive be stimulated so that they will give their all in preaching the gospel? This issue must be resolved with the truth. If you do not fellowship on the truth, you will not achieve results. If you just blindly tell people to do this and do that, and constantly urge and shout at them every day, then you will only achieve limited results, and they will not bear a true burden in their hearts. Therefore, when dealing with the kind of person who lacks a burden, you should ask them, “Do you want to be saved? If you want to be saved, why don’t you give your all to do your duty well?” They might say, “I have no drive in my heart.” So, what is the problem underlying a lack of drive in their heart? The problem is not understanding the truth, and so you must fellowship on the truth to resolve it. And what is the relationship between understanding the truth and doing your duty? When people do not understand the truth, they cannot achieve results in their duty. When people do not understand the truth and cannot grasp principles, they have no path in their duty. When people do not understand the truth, they have no faith, they lack motivation in their hearts, and they are completely powerless, as if paralyzed. Once people understand the truth, they are filled with drive. No matter what duty they do, they can give their all, and even risk their lives. That is a formidable thing. When people have the truth as their life, they grasp the truth principles, they have a path in doing their duty, and whatever they do yields results. So, is this problem easy to resolve? (It is.) Just lead everyone to pray and to eat and drink God’s words. Once they understand the truth, they will have drive in their hearts and the resolve to do their duty well. Some people will even swear an oath to God, saying, “Oh God, this work is too important. If this work does not achieve results, I am not worthy of living. If I do not gain anyone by preaching the gospel today, I will punish my flesh.” You see, with this kind of drive in their hearts, how could the work not be done well? Once they have this drive, their relationship with God becomes normal, they are willing to be considerate of God’s intentions in their hearts, and they vow to repay God’s love even unto death. They will feel that if they do not do their duty well in these last few years, all they will be left with is eternal regrets and an eternal debt. Such people can do their duty well. If someone asks you, “Have you gained the truth now? Does understanding some words and doctrines count as gaining the truth?” how would you answer? (Understanding words and doctrines does not count as gaining the truth.) Then what exactly is gaining the truth? It means being able to act according to principles in your duty, being able to propagate and testify to the truth in your duty, and being able to use the truth to gain people and achieve results in preaching the gospel. Only this is gaining the truth; only being able to practice the truth in your duty is gaining the truth. If you neither pursue the truth nor seek the truth in your duty, and do not act according to principles, then you will never gain the truth, and you will never possess the truth reality. Then are those without the truth reality laborers? (Yes.) Are laborers qualified to attain salvation? (No.) Laborers are not qualified to attain salvation. Anyone who, in their duty, lacks the truth as motivation, lacks a burden, and does not get results is someone who has not gained the truth. These people are laborers, and laborers are not qualified to attain salvation. Even if they survive into the next age, they cannot attain salvation in the Millennial Kingdom. When the Millennial Kingdom ends, devils and Satan will come out of the bottomless pit again, be reincarnated as famous and great people, and begin to mislead people. These laborers who have not gained the truth will be misled and will follow devils and Satan to betray God again. God says, “This is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). This death means dying completely, with no further opportunity to attain salvation. Therefore, if you do not gain the truth in these final few years, your outcome will be eternal death and eternal destruction. If you suffer, pay a price, and gain the truth in these few years, then you will gain eternal life, and you will be able to live forever in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, your outcome will be determined by whether you can gain the truth over the next couple of years. So, how can you measure whether you have gained the truth? It depends on whether you can pursue and seek the truth in your duty, whether you can enter the truth reality, and whether your duty performance can become a true testimony. If your duty performance becomes a true testimony, it proves that you possess the truth reality, and that you are a person who lives by the truth, rather than someone who can only labor a little. So, can you now act according to principles in doing your duty? Can you be devoted? Can you do your utmost to do your duty well? This depends on whether you have the resolve to pursue the truth. If you truly have the resolve to pursue the truth, then no matter what duty you do or how great the difficulties, you will be able to give your all to do your duty well.

Question 10: Some leaders and workers are relatively passive in their duty. How can we effectively resolve this problem so that they can change from being passive to proactive and become able to do their duty independently?

Answer: There is only one way to resolve this problem, and that is to help them understand the truth. This is the only way that they will be able to act according to principles and change from being passive to proactive in their duty. Apart from this, there is no other way. When people do not understand the truth and cannot act according to principles, they are often negative, passive, and perfunctory in their duty. Therefore, the most fundamental way to resolve this problem is to fellowship on the truth principles thoroughly. Only when they understand the truth can they take up a burden for their duty. When people bear a burden, their efficiency changes. They will have drive in their hearts, they will be able to do their utmost in their duty, and they will place demands on themselves to achieve results. Therefore, bearing a burden is truly crucial. If people do not bear a burden, they will not seek the truth in their duty, and they will be negative, passive, and perfunctory. If people do not bear a burden in their duty, they always just wait passively. If you give them guidance and follow up with them, they do a little work; if you do not give them guidance or follow up with them, they will just be perfunctory and stagnate. Therefore, the root cause of people being relatively passive in their duty is that they do not bear a burden. When people don’t bear a burden, they have no drive in their hearts. So, how can you get drive in your heart? By understanding the truth. Understanding the truth is the most crucial thing. If, no matter how you fellowship the truth to some people, they always say, “I understand what you’re fellowshipping, but I still have no drive in my heart,” how should this be resolved? If they understand the truth but still have no drive, it shows that they do not accept the truth. In that case, you must talk to them about the consequences of not accepting the truth. You should say, “The disasters are getting more and more serious now, and many people have died in them. Some religious pastors and believers have also died in the disasters. What is going on here? Do people still have a chance to attain salvation after they die? They do not. Now is the final stage of God’s salvation of mankind. Once someone dies, they are completely eliminated, and they will never again have a chance to attain salvation. So, what kind of people will die in the disasters, and what kind of people will survive them? People should seek the truth in this matter to understand God’s intentions. Some people never accept the truth. As God sees it, they are beyond saving and are destined to be destroyed. Some people can accept the truth, so God gives them a chance—even when disasters strike, they will not die. Everyone’s life and death is in God’s hands. Therefore, if you never pursue the truth and are consistently perfunctory in your duty, then God will not save or protect you. You might get cancer someday, or suddenly a disaster might strike and you will die. Is this not being eliminated? Now, the pandemic is getting more and more severe, breaking out in countries all over the world. Once people are infected, the mortality rate is very high. Even if some people don’t die after being infected several times, they are left with aftereffects. Is it not very painful to live like this? Would you still have the mind to pursue the truth? Could you still do your duty well? You would not be able to. Therefore, the next couple of years are the most crucial ones. The key to whether you can gain the truth lies in the next couple of years. Your fate and outcome will be determined by whether you can pursue the truth and do your duty well in the next couple of years.” You must clearly explain the urgency of the current times to them. This is crucial. If some people don’t believe it and feel that everything in the world is still normal, then you must say to them, “If you don’t believe this, just look at what scientists are doing. Some of them are developing rockets, wanting to take rockets to live on other planets. This shows that the earth is about to face devastating catastrophes. When these great catastrophes strike, no one will be able to carry on living unless God saves them. No one will be able to survive. Therefore, if you do not pursue the truth, you will not be able to escape the great catastrophes; you will die in them.” If you explain this matter thoroughly to them, and they truly see clearly that not pursuing the truth means death, then they will go from having no drive to having drive. How could they lack drive when it comes to saving their own life? If they still lack drive, then they are someone who refuses to shed a tear until confronted by the sight of their own coffin. There is nothing we can do about such people. How can you thoroughly explain the matter of pursuing the truth? You must say, “The aim of pursuing the truth is to save yourself from death; it has nothing to do with anyone else. If you do not pursue the truth, your outcome will be death. Pursuing the truth is so crucial. If you don’t want to die, hurry up and pursue the truth! If you can truly pursue the truth, and God sees that you are willing to repent, and that you can accept judgment and chastisement and know yourself, He might give you a chance and let you live a little longer so you can earnestly pursue the truth. If you only speak pleasant-sounding words but do not accept the truth when things come upon you, then you are in danger, and sooner or later you will be destroyed.” What do you think of fellowshipping like this? (It is good.) These are the facts; this is how things have been arranged by God. If you do not pursue the truth or accept the truth, your outcome is certain death.

Tell me, what is man before God? Man is but a tiny soul before God. How tiny? He has nothing and is nothing. If God allows this soul of yours to exist, you can live; if God has this soul of yours disappear, you will disappear. This is a very easy thing for God to do. Therefore, people should not think too highly of themselves. If you see someone who is arrogant and conceited, you should say to them, “Before God, man is but a tiny soul. If God says it shall be destroyed, it is destroyed—this soul disappears. This is a very simple matter. Man is so tiny and pitiful; he is nothing.” Therefore, when you gain a little enlightenment from the Holy Spirit and achieve some results in doing your work, and feel somewhat smug in your heart, you must realize, “I am a corrupt human, and I am nothing before God.” When you think this, you will no longer be arrogant, and you will know to stay low-key in your self-conduct. Before God, man is nothing and has no right to be arrogant. You haven’t gained the truth yet, but even if you understand a little truth, without God you are still nothing and will surely die. Without God, everything dies. At all times, even if you feel you have gained the truth, you must honor God as great, and look to God, rely on God, and worship God in all things. In addition, you say you have gained the truth, but do you know what it means to gain the truth? Has the truth become your life? If you only understand some words of the truth but haven’t put them into practice yet, then you haven’t truly gained the truth, and the truth hasn’t become your life. If one day God takes back all that you currently have, then you will have nothing. When you have truly seen man’s essence clearly, will you still seek to be a famous or great person? (No.) Will you still be arrogant? You will no longer be able to be arrogant. You will discover that you are nothing, and that however gifted you are, you are still tiny and not worth mentioning. Once you see this clearly, you will no longer be arrogant, you will have reason, and you will be able to treat all people, events, and things correctly. Why are arrogant people arrogant? Because they haven’t gained the truth. The less people have gained the truth, the more arrogant they are. Therefore, the more someone is a devil and a Satan, the more severely arrogant they are; the more conscience and reason someone has, the more they keep things low-key. If someone is particularly arrogant, they have certainly not gained the truth. If someone is particularly possessed of conscience and reason, they certainly have normal humanity, and they certainly understand some truths. God bestows the truth upon people, and when people live by the truth, they have humanity. If people haven’t gained the truth and only live by their satanic dispositions, do they deserve to be called human? (No.) If people cannot submit to God and worship God, do they deserve to be called human? (No.) Corrupt humans are full of satanic dispositions—if they cannot submit to God and worship God, then they are devils and do not deserve to be called human. So what results can people achieve when they gain the truth? They can live before God with reason, they can repay God’s love based on their conscience, and they can absolutely submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, submitting to God whether they face fortune or adversity. Is this a manifestation of possessing the greatest reason? (Yes.) It’s just like Job, who could still praise God after being stripped of everything—he was a person with reason. People who truly have reason are those who understand some truths. God bestows the truth upon people, and if they gain the truth, they will live with conscience and reason. If they haven’t gained the truth, can the claim that they have good humanity stand up? (No.) In what way is their humanity good? Do they have conscience and reason? (No.) If they have conscience and reason, why don’t they worship God? Why don’t they accept the truth? This is the biggest problem, and also the most practical problem. So what are the manifestations of a person who has gained the truth? They live with more and more reason. The more people understand the truth and the more they gain the truth, the sounder their reason becomes. Anyone whose reason is unsound has not gained the truth, and anyone who possesses no reason at all has not gained the truth. The more reason a person has, the more they submit to God, and the more reason a person has, the more they understand the truth. Therefore, when people truly gain the truth as their life, the most obvious manifestation of this is that they possess conscience and reason; they are the people who have the most conscience and reason. So can these people do their duty well? (Yes.) They will definitely forsake everything to follow God, they will definitely be able to do their duty properly, and they can give their all and do their utmost to do their duty well. Those who do their duty well are the only people who submit to God; those who do their duty well are the only people who know God; those who do their duty well are those with the most conscience and reason; and only those who do their duty well are approved of by God. Whether people have gained the truth and entered the truth reality is ultimately measured through how they do their duty. This is absolutely the case, and you must understand this. Tell me, do people who don’t do a duty have conscience and reason? (No.) Some people have just begun to believe in God, do not understand the truth, and are unwilling to do a duty. We cannot ask too much of them. However, if someone has believed for two or three years, or three to five years, and understands some truths but still does not do a duty, then there is a problem with them. In addition, you may say that someone believes in God well and that they understand the truth—but do they do their duty well? If they don’t do their duty well, then where is the reality of their understanding of the truth? Where is the proof that they understand the truth? If they lack the reality of understanding the truth and cannot produce any proof that they understand the truth, then your claim that they believe in God well is just your own imagining. The fact is, God does not approve of them, and they have not gained the truth. Therefore, assessing whether a person has gained the truth means looking at how they do their duty, whether they act according to the truth principles and bear witness to God in their duty. If there are any adulterations in how they do their duty—if they are always showing off and testifying to themselves, and always wanting to pursue fame and gain and attain status—then they are a hypocritical Pharisee and an enemy of God, and you must be on guard against them. What do you think of viewing and treating people in this way? (It is accurate.) A person who understands the truth is sincere in doing their duty and acts according to principles. When they encounter difficulties, they will not quit. Even if they encounter monumental difficulties, they will pray to and rely on God to resolve them. They are devoted to God’s commission unto death. As long as they have a breath left in their body, they will not stop doing their duty; they will strive on for as long as they live. Therefore, you must remember: All those who are devoted to their duty are devoted to it because they understand the truth. If they did not understand the truth, they would absolutely not bear such a great burden. You see, when some people encounter a little difficulty in doing their duty, they pray to and rely on God; then, they gain the work and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the difficulty is ultimately resolved. They see that God has helped them, and they come to know that God is man’s greatest support. But if they encounter more difficulties, they lose the faith to pray, and they become negative inside, thinking, “Why is it so hard to believe in God and do my duty? I am not going to do my duty anymore,” and they just quit and run away. Tell me—they have already experienced the Holy Spirit’s work once or twice and have appreciated that God is man’s greatest support, so why are they still capable of running away? It is because they have not gained the truth. The Holy Spirit’s work gives them some faith, so then they can pay a little price in their duty. If the Holy Spirit does not work, they have no drive in their duty. This is what people without the truth are like. Their state is always unstable, and it is very difficult for them to be devoted and to do their utmost in their duty. A person who has truly gained the truth has stature. Regardless of whether the Holy Spirit is working or not, they will exert all the drive they have in doing their duty. They will give their all and can be devoted. Noah persisted in building the ark for one hundred and twenty years without stopping. Who nowadays can persist in doing their duty for so many years? Can people today even persist for ten years, let alone one hundred and twenty years? And throughout these ten years, you do not shrink back from any difficulty you encounter in your duty, and you resolve them by praying to God and seeking the truth, just persisting day in and day out for ten years—can you achieve this? Some say they cannot persist for ten years—can you persist day in and day out for three years? If you cannot even persist day in and day out for three years, and you feel too tired after persisting for just one week and want to take a vacation and have a rest, do you have any loyalty to God? (No.) Tell me, have I had a single day of rest in my forty years of doing my duty? (No.) I have had no days off from my duty. Sometimes when I am sick and it affects my voice, I have no choice but to rest a little. But if the illness does not affect my voice, I still persist in gathering and fellowshipping; I cannot stop doing my duty. I hold gatherings and fellowship to resolve problems or difficulties in any task at any time. Tell me, is this tiring? (It is.) But I do not feel tired. Why is this? Bearing a burden in your heart is crucial. If someone wants to gain the truth and repay God’s love, they will have inexhaustible drive in their duty. Their heart will be free of fleshly matters. Even if their flesh is a bit tired, their heart is fulfilled and feels enjoyment, and so they do not feel tired. Then tell me—is it because I am in good health that I don’t feel tired? My physical condition is merely average, but I just feel that I won’t resolve any problems by resting for a day; I’d simply be idling away the hours and wasting time. Is this thought of mine correct? (It is.) We must always keep God’s commission in our hearts. We must live our whole lives to complete God’s commission. We must not think about our outcome, destination or any blessings; we must only consider how to complete God’s commission, persisting in being devoted to our duty until we die. Regardless of whether we can ultimately gain God’s approval, even if we go to hell, we will be content with this life. We have accepted God’s commission. If we do our utmost to carry it out, then even if we do not do it that well and our results fall a bit short—because our understanding of the truth is too shallow and our caliber is too poor—we will have no regrets. We must have this kind of attitude in doing our duty. If we do not do our utmost and don’t give our all, then our conscience will feel too indebted to God. This is how this should be understood.

How can you resolve the issue of people always being relatively passive in doing their duty? You must resolve it by praying to God and equipping yourself with the truth. No matter what problems there are in the work I do, I resolve them with the truth. Fellowshipping on the truth and pruning are both necessary, and these must be used in combination. With some people, if you only fellowship the truth, they do not accept it. Their comprehension ability is poor, so you have to explain the basic principles to them and make them abide by regulations. Sometimes, they must also be pruned severely; only in this way will you get slightly better results. Is it okay to just fellowship the truth without pruning people? (No.) Resolving some people’s problems requires pruning as well. Without pruning, the results will not be good. Therefore, sometimes I am quite severe when I prune people, and some things I say sound a bit like verbal abuse. For example, when I see someone who is consistently perfunctory in their duty, and fellowshipping the truth with them does no good no matter how hard I try, I have to prune them severely, saying, “You have no humanity! You have no conscience! You are an animal!” Words like these actually do work on some people, and afterward, their attitude to their duty becomes much better. The problems of some people can be resolved by fellowshipping the truth, while the problems of others cannot be resolved just by fellowshipping the truth, and can only be resolved with pruning. The more severe the pruning, the more effective it is. People are all different. Some people are suited to this kind of working method, and some are suited to that kind of working method. Therefore, if someone’s problems can be resolved by fellowshipping the truth, then we resolve them by fellowshipping the truth. This is the best method. If fellowshipping the truth cannot resolve the problems, the person must be pruned. If pruning also cannot resolve the problems, then we must quickly dismiss the person—this is the only method left.