Fellowship From the Brother Above – January 21, 2025 (Part Eight)

How should one enter into the pursuit of the truth? It begins with knowing oneself. To understand the truth, you must first learn to know yourself. How many years do you think it takes to know oneself? (A lifetime.) Some people say, “You can finish coming to know yourself within a month.” In a month, you can count up the bad things you have done and finish knowing them, but can you know your corrupt dispositions? How many corrupt dispositions are you able to recognize? You could work yourself to death and still not know them. There are some corrupt dispositions that you cannot know when you have not revealed them. There are some corrupt dispositions that are revealed very little or occasionally, which you also cannot know. And there are some corrupt dispositions that can only be revealed in special circumstances, which makes them even harder to know. Some corrupt dispositions can only be revealed in trials. When one faces great trials, Satan’s temptations, life-or-death choices, or the most crucial moments, that’s when these corrupt dispositions can be revealed. Therefore, knowing one’s corrupt dispositions is a lifelong matter. Can we say this? (Yes.) How did Peter achieve his utmost love for God? That was a result achieved after seven years of trials. He saw that God was truly almighty, that God was truly lovely, and that God’s loveliness surpassed his imagination and was something he had never witnessed before, so he became able to have such a great love for God and to love God to the utmost. Eventually, no matter how God treated him, he did not complain. Even when he was handed over to the Roman government to be crucified, he said on the cross: “God! I cannot love You enough! Even if You ask me to die, I still cannot love You enough” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. How Peter Came to Know Jesus). Look how deep his knowledge of God was. This was achieved through hundreds of trials over the course of seven years. Therefore, if you do not experience trials, even if you live a lifetime, the corrupt dispositions you can recognize will still be limited. Only when God tries you can He reveal to you things you would never otherwise experience and the corruption you would never otherwise reveal, showing you the most hidden sickness within you, the root of the sickness hidden in your blood and bones. Only then will you truly come to know yourself. You will think to yourself, “What is man before God? He is truly worthless!” Will you then remain arrogant? Will you still be self-important? Will you still be self-righteous? These things will all be gone. You will remain untroubled no matter how people treat you. If people call you names, you will have no objections. You will think, “I am just a corrupt thing. Not only should I be called names and beaten, but I shall have no complaints even if I am to be punished.” Therefore, just learning to know oneself is enough for a person to spend a lifetime on. Some people say, “If we believe in God our whole lives and only learn to know ourselves, can we know God?” Is there a relationship between knowing oneself and knowing God? (Yes.) When people know themselves, they also see God’s love, God’s salvation, and God’s disposition. So truths are interconnected. All truths are closely linked. Every truth has a close relationship with every other truth, and they are all inseparable from one another. For example, the truth of believing in God. Believing in God is a major truth, and it is the most basic truth. Then what about submitting to God and knowing God? The truths in these are deeper. Every truth is interconnected. For example, the truth of being an honest person. What is the relationship between being an honest person and submitting to God? If you are not an honest person, can you submit to God? If you are not an honest person, does your belief in God not carry disguise and deception within it? Is it not with deceit? If you are a truly honest person, then your submission to God is also true and without adulteration. If you are not an honest person, your submission to God is sure to be adulterated, your love for God may also be feigned, and your belief in and submission to God may contain other intentions and satanic schemes. Therefore, every truth is interconnected. While coming to know yourself, you also gain knowledge of God. If you truly know yourself deeply, you will also have a practical knowledge of God. Because you have knowledge of God, your knowledge of yourself can lead to true repentance. The more you know God’s loveliness, righteousness and holiness, the more you will hate yourself. When you hate yourself, you will have remorse, and with remorse, you will practice the truth and rebel against the flesh, and you will have strength and motivation to practice the truth. Is that not so? (It is.) If your knowledge of yourself is superficial, can you come to hate yourself? You won’t even have the strength to slap yourself, and in doing so, you would be going through the motions, engaging in deception. If you truly hate yourself, then you will come to achieve considerable results. You will curse yourself, saying, “I am not human, I am not worthy to live! It would be right for God to destroy me!” If you can hate yourself to this degree, won’t you be able to practice the truth and submit to God? (Yes.) Is knowing oneself related to achieving submission to God? (It is.) Can knowing oneself lead one to rebel against the flesh? (Yes.) Some people say, “I also know myself, but why can I not practice the truth after knowing myself? I understand all truths, but I just cannot practice them. How can this problem be solved?” Is this problem easy to solve? Is there a path? (There is.) If you cannot practice the truth, it shows that your knowledge of yourself is false; if you truly knew yourself, you would curse yourself. Do you dare to curse yourself? If you dare to curse yourself, then you can rebel against the flesh. If you do not dare to curse yourself, then you cannot practice the truth, and your claim that you know yourself is not true. So is knowing oneself important for life entry and achieving submission to God? (It is.) The Lord Jesus said: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). How is this repentance achieved? On what basis is it established? (On the basis of truly knowing oneself.) You must know your corrupt dispositions. When you have seen through to your corrupt nature, you become able to hate yourself. Only when you hate yourself and even dare to curse yourself can you practice the truth. For example, some people say, “I am willing to expend myself for God, but my nonbelieving spouse is standing in my way. What can I do? I am willing to live a poor life and to just be content with having enough to eat and wear, but my nonbelieving spouse does not agree. If I do that, they’ll divorce me, and then my family will be broken apart. A broken family does not glorify God! So I cannot forsake everything to expend myself for God.” Look, is it easy to forsake everything? (No.) This truth is the most difficult thing to practice. How much of a price must one pay to practice this truth? This is easy to imagine, and you understand even if I do not say it. What did the Lord Jesus say? “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). You see, forsaking everything to expend oneself for God is truly meaningful. Practicing this truth is directly satisfying God and can allow you to win the greatest blessings, but how many people can do it? Therefore, you must often pray, “Oh God, I ask You to open a way for me, so that I can forsake everything to follow You.” If you pray to God, God will open a way for you. If God really opens a way for you but it is not in line with your notions, and you even complain about God, saying, “Oh God, why is my family gone? You have destroyed my family! I will not believe in You anymore!” that would be terrible! You prayed to God and asked Him to open a way, but when God truly opens a way, you turn around and bite Him and complain about Him. Do you have submission to God? (No.) Have you borne a testimony? (No.) How do you compare to Job? (We fall far short of him.) Therefore, if a major event truly does befall you, and nonbelievers see a disaster befall you, they will say, “Do you not believe in God? How can such a great disaster befall you even though you believe in God?” At that time, you will be muddled, not knowing that this is God’s blessing. In reality, God’s blessings are hidden in this matter. This is God wanting to use you and opening a way for you. If you complain about God, then you are not worthy to receive God’s grace and blessings. So, some things that God does are in line with people’s notions, and it is easy for you to submit. But if they aren’t in line with your notions, will you fly into a rage and turn around and bite God? If you truly fear God and shun evil like Job did, and say, “I do not know what God’s intention is in this matter, but I will submit. I cannot see through this matter, but I will not complain about God, nor will I condemn God or sin with my mouth,” then you are wise. So there are many unsatisfactory things that are very difficult for you to submit to if you look at them with human notions and imaginings. But what should you do if you cannot see through them? You must have a God-fearing heart. For things you cannot see through, do not speak rashly, and do not judge God. What God does is always right, and the significance of what God does is far beyond your imagination. Some things have God’s blessings hidden in them, but you cannot see them. You may think that God has sent a disaster upon you, but it is in fact not a disaster, but rather God’s blessings upon you. Therefore, God’s great blessings are hidden within the trials we encounter, but people cannot see them. If you do not have a God-fearing heart, you will be revealed, and God will abandon you. Some people say, “I also want to seek to love God, and I also want to expend myself for God, but my family situation does not permit it. I cannot forsake them. I don’t have the resolve right now, so I’ll wait until I’ve gradually grown in stature. Once my stature has grown, in less than another three to five years, the great catastrophes will have descended, and my nonbelieving relatives will all be dead. Then I will expend myself for God.” What do you think of this idea? By the time your situation permits it, God’s work will be over, your life will not have grown, and you will not have much of a testimony. The great catastrophes that will destroy mankind are about to descend. The current disasters are disasters in which very few people die. An earthquake kills dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people, but the true great catastrophes are those that will destroy mankind, in which a great number of people will die—millions, or even tens of millions. Those are the true catastrophes! When those catastrophes descend and all nonbelievers are dead, will there still be time for you to expend yourself for God and seek to love God? (It will be too late, and God’s work will be over.) There is a time for God to save and perfect people. From God beginning to speak in 1991 to the end of the great catastrophes of the last three and a half years, this stage is the opportunity for God to perfect people, and this opportunity is only over thirty years. Is this period of time for perfecting people mentioned in the Bible? The prophecies of the Lord Jesus often say “those days” and “that day.” What exactly does “that day” refer to? The Lord Jesus once said: “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 those who give suck? The great catastrophes will not only destroy those who are with child and those who give suck, but all corrupt and wicked mankind who do not believe in God and resist Him. Then why did the Lord Jesus say that those who are with child and those who give suck are in woe? The Lord Jesus did not say that those who are with child and those who give suck have sinned, but that they are in woe. This woe refers to the consequence, which is missing the opportunity to be saved and being destroyed. Let’s think about it. During the period in which God is doing the work of saving and perfecting people, you happen to get married, get pregnant, and have a child. Five or six years will pass in a flash. You have accepted God’s work very late, already in the later stage, and there are only a few years left. You happen to be pregnant, have a child, and nurse the child in these few years. As a result, the opportunity for God to perfect people has passed, the gate of grace has closed, and you will have missed this sole opportunity in over six thousand years after God’s creation of mankind. So tell me, is now a good time for you to get pregnant and nurse a child? (No, it hinders things.) What does it hinder? It hinders your being saved and perfected. You have not received the greatest blessings. At this critical juncture, if you are saved and perfected by God, the reward you receive will be great! If you truly gain the truth, how great a reward can you receive? Those who testify to God and love God will travel across the universe! But if you are pregnant and nursing a child at this critical juncture, then you are in woe. This isn’t the right time. Isn’t this correct? (It is.) Just as some people fall in love and get pregnant unknowingly when they are about to take the university entrance exam, what happens after they get pregnant? They are held up in getting into university, and if they cannot get into university, they will not be able to find a good job. Who told you to get pregnant at that critical juncture? If you are also pregnant and nursing a child at this critical time in your belief in God, this will mess up and ruin your future. God has not said that you have sinned by being pregnant or nursing a child, nor has He said that you have violated the law. This is not you sinning, but you are forfeiting your opportunity to be saved. Is that not so? (It is.) Then there are some men who, while they don’t become pregnant and do not nurse children, say, “Believing in God interferes with my career, and it interferes with my pursuit of fame, gain, and status. That is not acceptable. I cannot accept it. I will believe after I have succeeded in my career or after I have retired.” Such people are also in woe, and like those who are pregnant and nursing children, they will all have missed the opportunity to be saved. Is that not so? (It is.) Some people have good caliber and gifts, but they work as senior executives or managers in companies. They say, “I cannot follow God. I will believe after I have retired.” In this, what have they forfeited? They have forfeited and ruined their opportunity to be saved and perfected. Some people have just been admitted to university, and if you preach the gospel to them, they say, “No, I have just been admitted to university. I will believe after I have finished university.” This is another missed opportunity, and it is of the same nature as “woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck.” Therefore, being saved and perfected is not as the people in the religious world imagine, “once saved, always saved,” and “if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you shall be saved.” That’s not how it is. It takes eight to ten years for God to perfect people. Is that not so? (Yes.) Can the truth be gained in a few days? (No.) Gaining the truth is not about being able to memorize, speak, and preach words and doctrines. It is not like that. The truth is not doctrine. The truth can become your life and can dominate and guide everything about you. This is gaining the truth. Gaining the truth is not understanding a little truth, much less understanding a little literal meaning and being able to preach a little doctrine. Rather, it is having the truth reality and being able to live out the truth. This is gaining the truth. Therefore, gaining the truth takes time. It takes roughly between seven and ten years of experience. A short period of experience is not enough. You say you have a career, a job, and that you want to finish your work and retire before you believe. After those few years have passed, your opportunity to gain the truth will be gone, and you will have missed it. Tell me, how long does it take to know oneself? To know oneself thoroughly takes a lifetime, at the very least, eight to ten years. Sometimes you feel you pretty much know yourself, but then suddenly you encounter a trial that reveals your corruption again, and at this critical juncture, you can still betray and deny God. You will feel, “How come I can betray God? How did I not think of this?” This is a shortfall in your knowledge of yourself, and you do not know yourself at all.

There was once a person who had followed Almighty God in his faith for many years, and after he had become a leader and made sacrifices and expended himself, he thought that now that God is sending down the disasters to destroy the great red dragon, he would surely have a share in the kingdom of heaven. But contrary to his expectations, he ended up being tracked and arrested by the great red dragon during a gathering. The great red dragon interrogated him through the night, and kept him awake for seven days straight, taking turns to question him. When he refused to sell out the church, he was electrocuted with electric batons and beaten and kicked. He really couldn’t bear it, and he thought, “Oh God, I cannot take it anymore. Can You open a way out for me? Can I sell out the church just a little?” In the end, he couldn’t endure the torture and became a Judas. What is the problem here? God’s words say: “In this stage of work, the utmost faith and love are required from us, and we may stumble from the slightest carelessness, for this stage of work is different from all the previous ones: What God is perfecting is people’s faith, which is both invisible and intangible. What God does is convert words to faith, to love, and to life” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Path … (8)). How does one walk the path of following God? One must rely on faith! One may stumble from the slightest carelessness. You see, after being tortured by the great red dragon, he stumbled. Overnight, he became a Judas and signed the Three Statements, denying God. Before he left, the CCP’s police forces even made him curse God, and if he refused, they wouldn’t let him go. In the end, he cursed God a couple of times, and this cursing did him in. God says this is blasphemy. Tell me, after the police released him, how did he make it home from the prison gate? He was like a soulless corpse, and he didn’t even know how he got home. His heart was completely paralyzed, he could no longer feel God’s presence, and he had no tears to cry. He hadn’t expected that overnight, he’d become a Judas who denied and betrayed God. Tell me, did he know himself? He did not. He used to be full of confidence, thinking, “This time I will surely have hope of entering the kingdom of heaven. No matter who else falls, I won’t. No matter who else becomes a Judas and signs the Three Statements, I won’t. I can lay down my life.” However, he ended up being arrested and taken to the police station, and after one round of torture, he became a Judas. Tell me, does such a person know himself? (No.) Therefore, it is not easy for people to know themselves. Before being arrested and tortured, no one makes up their mind that they will become a Judas. No one would say so. Everyone would say, “I could not possibly be a Judas.” No one knows themselves. Only when it really comes down to it can it be proven whether you are a Judas or not. At that time, you will have to admit that you too are a Judas. Why did you become a Judas? It is because you are afraid of death. But being afraid of death is useless! For instance, with the intense war going on between Russia and Ukraine now, who can be sure that they won’t die? No one can. Modern weapons are too powerful. You can hide twenty or thirty meters underground, but a single bomb can blow the ground wide open. It doesn’t matter how deep you burrow underground; these weapons are too powerful. You can die on the battlefield without ever seeing the enemy. Some people say, “Oh Almighty God, I will believe in You if You protect my husband and son from death.” What do you think of this prayer? Can it be accepted by God? (No.) War is also permitted by God. If the devils want to fight, could the guns and cannons they use fire without God’s permission? Then why does God permit it? God’s words are very clear on this: Whatever devils and Satans want to do has God’s permission. Everything is subject to God’s arrangements. Who is to die and who isn’t is also preordained by God. Those who are meant to die will not live, and those who are not meant to die cannot die even if they want to. God has arranged it all. God uses this type of situation to refine people’s faith. When you are refined to the point of submitting unto death, God will say, “You are willing to submit, so I will not have you die,” and you will not die. When you do not want to die, God still has to use the trial of death to refine you, to see if you can submit unto death. When you truly want to die, God will not let you die. Therefore, in the last days, God’s work is often done through these situations, through Satan rendering service to perfect people. In China, God uses the great red dragon to render service, and in other countries around the world, He uses all kinds of situations, wars, and disasters to render service. Is this not so? (It is.) When a disaster befalls you and takes away all of your family’s property, how do you view this? You say, “Oh God, why did You not protect me? I have believed in You, and I have even preached the gospel. Why did You not protect my family and keep my property from being taken away?” Is it okay to pray like this? (No.) Then what should you do when this happens to you? You should quickly seek the truth! How should you seek? You should ponder why God allowed such a disaster to befall you, and you should seek the truth in God’s words. What do God’s words say? “What God does is convert words to faith, to love …” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Path … (8)). Through such refinement, God lets you see whether you have submission and true testimony. For example, some people love their husband more than anything. They say, “If my husband dies, I will no longer believe in God.” Look at that, the adulteration in this belief of theirs is great, is it not? (It is.) Some people say, “My child has gotten COVID. If they die, You are not the true God.” You see, this is challenging God. Do they have faith? (No.) When this happens to you, although you cannot see through it, there is a mystery in it, so you must seek the truth. There is truth to be sought here. God’s thoughts are higher than man’s, and God’s ways are higher than man’s. What God arranges for you is always the best, exceeding what you ask for or imagine. Can man fathom it? You cannot. What should you do if you cannot fathom it? You must have the kind of faith in which you tell yourself, “No matter who in my family dies, I will not complain about God. Even if my mother dies, I will not complain about God. There is God’s good intention in this. Although I do not know what God’s intention is, I will submit. I know that what God does is not wrong.” Do you have this kind of faith? If you do not, then you will stumble from the slightest carelessness. For example, your wife dies, and you say, “Oh God, the person I love the most has died. Why did You not protect her? Why did You take my wife away from me? God, You must give me an answer, otherwise I will no longer do my duty.” Is there submission in this? (No.) Some people have a child who dies shortly after birth. What do they say? “Oh God, other people have several children who are all in good health, but I only have this one child and You have taken him away. I cannot live anymore! The pain is too great!” Do you know God’s good intention? You do not. If you truly pray to God, approach this matter with a God-fearing heart, and can seek the truth in this matter, then one day you will surely understand, and you will say, “What God has done is so good. What God has done exceeds what I asked for or imagined. God is so good to me!” You will be moved to tears, and when you think about what you said just after your child died, you will regret it and slap yourself. Remember this: No matter what God does, it is always the best, the most meaningful, and the truth, and it represents God’s righteousness. What God arranges for people is fair and reasonable. If you cannot be certain of this, then you are highly prone to complaining about and rebelling against God! Therefore, submitting to God is not something that can be achieved just by understanding the doctrines. It requires going through many trials and refinements, and these many trials and refinements reveal how much rebelliousness you have toward God, and whether you have true submission to God. For things you consider good, and things that are in line with your notions, you submit to God. For things that are not in line with your notions, things you consider bad, and for things that you feel should not have befallen you, you resist God. Is this submission? When what God does is not in line with your notions, you say, “I cannot see through this, but I will not complain about God. I believe that what God does is the best, and I will absolutely submit to God.” Do you have this kind of faith? If you do not fail and feel ashamed many times in these things, you will not know God. If you do not know God and only believe in Him based on your imaginings, that will not do. Therefore, there are many difficulties in following the incarnate God today. God’s work today is different from that done in the Age of Grace. You will stumble from the slightest carelessness. Without faith, you cannot follow this path. The incarnate God is an ordinary person on the outside. When you’re asked to treat this ordinary person as God, to submit to, worship, and love Him, your heart will not be able to accept it. If you do not seek the truth when you cannot accept it, then sooner or later, you will fall and leave. If you seek the truth, you can solve some of your problems. If you do not seek the truth, just cling to your notions and imaginings, and cling to your views, then you are finished. You will be unable to stand firm or gain the truth! Is that understood? (Yes.) How does one walk the path of believing in God? For example, you live in Ukraine, and the war between Russia and Ukraine is getting more and more intense. How do you view this matter? If one day you are also seriously injured and face death, can you betray God and leave God? Are you prepared to die? This is a real problem. The war between Russia and Ukraine is getting more and more intense, and there are many other disasters in other places. When such things come upon you, you must seek the truth. Some people say, “Is God not able to take care of so many people? There are too many disasters, and God cannot manage them all. God may also make mistakes sometimes.” Is there anyone who thinks this way? (There may be.) You do not know God’s almightiness. Just look at how big the universe is! Just look at how many planets there are! Just look at how many mysteries there are in the entire universe created by God that mankind cannot even count! Look at how advanced human science is now, with all its cutting-edge instruments. Can it calculate how many planets there are in the universe? (No.) It cannot calculate how far apart each planet is, either. There are many mysteries in just this one earth. No one can predict where an earthquake will occur, when and where a volcano will erupt, or where and when a tsunami will be triggered. These have all been arranged long ago. When there will be a disaster, and how many people will die in a specific disaster, are all arranged. People cannot see through this. Tell me, can man measure God’s almightiness? You can only say the words, “God is almighty,” but do you know what almightiness is? God is sovereign over all things, and in His actions, He will not be off by a hair’s breadth, nor will He be wrong at all. When you have experienced more of these things, you will come to see through them. Therefore, no matter what happens, you must not complain about God. What God does is absolutely the best, and His arrangements are fair and reasonable. You just need to submit to and praise God.