Fellowship From the Brother Above – October 15, 2025 (Part Eight)

Question 17: I have resolved to write articles many times, but because I often have work to follow up on, I’ve consistently failed to focus on my life entry and haven’t written any. I’m worried that if this continues, I won’t be able to gain the truth. I want to understand how to focus on my life entry amid my busy work and write articles of true experiential testimony.

Answer: What does life entry refer to? It refers to understanding the truth. So what’s going on when people encounter difficulties? What causes these “difficulties”? It’s due to a lack of the truth. Without the truth, everything is difficult, and no difficulty can be resolved. So, if you seek the truth when you encounter a difficulty, can it then be resolved? (Yes.) Do you then come to understand the truth by doing this? (Yes.) And once you understand the truth, is that not life entry? (It is.) Once you truly understand the truth, you will have made progress in the truth, and this means you will have gained the truth. And when you have gained the truth, won’t that then propel your life entry and your practice? (It will.) Once you come to understand the truth, do you not then have a path for practicing the truth? (Yes.) And if you have a path for practicing the truth, will you not then have testimony when you put it into practice? So how is this experiential testimony formed? (It is formed through people understanding and practicing the truth.) If every time you encounter a difficulty or a problem, you resolve it by seeking the truth, you will come to understand the truth, you will have a path for practicing the truth, and you will be able to put the truth into practice. Once you can put the truth into practice, your experiential testimonies will be formed, and you will have more and more of them.

Let’s take an example. Let’s say someone doesn’t know how to cooperate harmoniously with others. They look down on everyone and always focus on others’ shortcomings. As a result, they can’t cooperate with anyone, and the work can’t move forward. Is this not a problem? (It is.) So what is the root of this problem? Why can’t they cooperate with anyone? (The problem is that they are too arrogant.) Such a person is too arrogant. They cannot treat others correctly. So, are they not living by a corrupt disposition? (They are.) They live by a corrupt disposition and cannot treat people fairly. As a result, they can’t get along with anyone. People get tired of them and reject them, and they end up becoming an outcast. Is this not caused by a corrupt disposition taking control? So how can this corrupt disposition be resolved? (By seeking the truth.) What likeness should a normal person live out? How does God require a normal person to treat others? (With fairness, and He requires people to learn to be tolerant and patient.) To be able to treat others fairly, you must first see through to their essence. If in their essence, a person can accept the truth and truly believe in God, then they are a brother or sister. Since they are a brother or sister, how should we treat them? (We should treat them with tolerance and patience, and we should support and help them.) If this person is a devil who doesn’t accept the truth in the slightest, how should you treat them? You should reject them and keep your distance from them. But when you can’t quite see through to what kind of person they are, you should start out by helping them. After a period of helping them, if they still don’t accept the truth, you will have seen through them and think, “This person doesn’t accept the truth at all. They are a devil.” At this, you should just ignore them. No matter how long you spend trying to help a devil, it’s useless. They will not accept the truth. If a person can accept the truth, then they are a brother or sister. Even if they have flaws and shortcomings, we must treat them fairly and with love. Because everyone has their own strengths and shortcomings, if you exclude someone because of a certain shortcoming they have, then by the same token, shouldn’t others also exclude you, given that you yourself also have many shortcomings? If we are loving, we should bear with and be tolerant of others’ shortcomings. We should help them if we can, and even if we can’t, we shouldn’t condemn or hate them. We should give them time to experience things. Perhaps as they gradually come to know themselves, they will become able to practice the truth and change. We must treat people correctly. The prerequisite for treating people correctly is that you must first learn to discern people and then treat each type of person according to the truth principles. This is the most accurate way. Tell me, how does God treat people? How does He determine people’s outcomes? God determines people’s outcomes based on whether they have the truth and on their attitude toward the truth. This is God’s righteousness. So, we must also treat people based on their attitude toward the truth. In this way, our principles for treating people will be the same as God’s, and this will be in line with God’s intentions. Right? (Right.) In our work, we must learn to cooperate with others, learn from each other’s strengths to make up for our own weaknesses, and make progress together. In this way, we will get better and better results in our duties. Can work be done without cooperation? (No.) Everyone has deficiencies and shortcomings and needs others to cooperate with them to make up for what they lack. For example, if two people are working together, and one has poor eyesight but is good with their hands, while the other has good eyesight but isn’t, then they each must make up for what the other lacks. The one with poor eyesight must rely on the other’s eyes, and the one with good eyesight must count on the other to do the work. Through such harmonious cooperation, each of them can put their skills to good use and get the job done properly. Let’s take another example. If two people go to preach the gospel, and one is eloquent, while the other isn’t, but is wise and can come up with ideas—if these two cooperate, their preaching of the gospel can achieve results. This is putting individual strengths to use. If you don’t know how to cooperate with others, you can’t do work. If you can’t treat people correctly, you are not up to standard in either how you conduct yourself or in how you handle matters. Treating people correctly is of the utmost importance. This is the foundation of conducting yourself as a person and a primary principle for measuring whether someone has reason and the truth. All who are particularly principled and fair in how they treat people have the truth and humanity. Those without the truth and humanity cannot treat people fairly according to principles. Can you see through to this? (Yes.) Without the truth, you can’t be fair to people even if you want to. You might be able to talk about being fair, but in reality, you just can’t do it. It’s the same with being principled in how you treat people. You might promise to be principled, but without the truth, you can’t do it. Your corrupt disposition could take control of you at any time and any place, making your promise unreliable and prone to deviation. Being unable to treat people fairly and according to principles is incredibly serious, and it could very well bring ruin upon people and cause them great harm. Once you have seen through these things and understood this aspect of the truth, do you not then have a path by which to practice the truth and rebel against the flesh? Will you not then be able to cooperate harmoniously with others? (Yes.) And in this aspect, will you not have gained life entry? Will you not have experiential testimony? Remember, no matter what kind of problem you encounter, so long as you focus on seeking the truth until you understand it, see through to the root of the problem, and find the principles for practice, your problem can be resolved. You will then be able to practice the truth and have experiential testimony. This is the practical path of life entry.

Question 18: Although I know that cultivating newcomers so they can take on work independently is the primary responsibility of a leader and worker, I tend to focus on achieving results when I see that the work is not effective, and so I rush to do the work myself and neglect cultivating people. How can I resolve this wrong state and do a good job of cultivating newcomers?

Answer: To do the work of a leader well, you must be able to promote and make use of people. This is what it means to know how to assign work. And what do I mean by knowing how to assign work? It means that for any task, you must know how to select the right people. If you select the right personnel for a task, then half the battle is won, and you can be confident that the work will get off the ground. If you don’t select the right people, it’s easy for the work to be botched. If you choose the wrong people, then there’s no hope of the work succeeding. Therefore, selecting and promoting people is absolutely crucial. For example, let’s say you choose someone to be a gospel deacon, but they’re very lazy and don’t equip themselves with the truths of the visions. What will happen if they serve as a gospel deacon? (They will delay and hinder the gospel work.) Laziness in itself is a fatal problem. If a person is lazy, they can’t do any work well. On top of that, they don’t equip themselves with the truth, which makes the problem even more serious. How can they preach the gospel without any truth? They won’t gain anyone. What if such a person were a church leader? Could they lead the brothers and sisters into the truth reality? How can they lead the brothers and sisters without the truth? They can’t. Without the truth, you can’t do anything. No matter what you do, you will have no path and achieve no results. This is because leading a church is not manual labor. It’s not like farming, which you can do without the truth. Leading a church really requires a person to understand the truth and possess some truth reality. This is absolutely crucial and of the utmost importance! You must understand the truth in all matters, know how to handle all kinds of problems you encounter, be able to practice according to the truth principles, and be able to meet God’s requirements, submit to God, and bear witness for God. Only in this way can you lead people well. If you don’t understand the truth, how can you lead people? Look, when some people are choosing leaders, they just choose whoever is eloquent. Such a person may be eloquent, but they don’t understand the truth. So when they speak with such eloquence, what are they actually saying? They’re just speaking everything except the truth. What’s the use of that? It’s of no benefit to people. When selecting leaders and workers, you must choose people who have spiritual understanding and the ability to comprehend the truth. If the leader you choose is the one who fellowships on the truth most clearly in the entire church and whose comprehension of God’s words is the purest, then your choice of a church leader is truly accurate and excellent. But if the chosen church leader’s comprehension is not very good, and they can only speak some words and doctrines, are a bit clever, and seem sharp on the outside but don’t actually have much spiritual understanding, is this a good choice for a church leader? (No.) If a church leader is poorly chosen and doesn’t understand the truth, what consequences will that bring? (The church’s work won’t be able to get off the ground.) That church’s gospel work won’t be done well, its church life won’t be well-organized, and the brothers and sisters won’t have any life entry, because the church leader doesn’t have much spiritual understanding and doesn’t understand the truth. Therefore, a leader chosen in a church must have the ability to comprehend the truth, they must be of the best caliber in the church, and they must also sincerely believe in God. If such a person is chosen to be a church leader, then that church will develop. The church life will get better and better, and the gospel work and all other church work will take off. It’s like being given a horse-drawn cart, but you’ve chosen a poor horse to pull it. The horse doesn’t pull hard and even backs up. Isn’t this holding things up? If you want the cart to carry a heavy load and transport things, you have to replace that horse. Is this not the case? (It is.) Therefore, choosing a church leader is absolutely crucial. Look, some church leaders are eloquent and clever at handling external affairs, but they don’t have much spiritual understanding. Meanwhile, some brothers and sisters have quite a bit of spiritual understanding but haven’t been chosen as leaders. What’s going on here? This is because in the early days of the church, some brothers and sisters lacked discernment. They chose whoever was most enthusiastic or most eloquent to be a leader. They couldn’t see clearly who in the church truly had spiritual understanding or who truly had comprehension ability. They couldn’t discern people, so they couldn’t select the right person to be a leader. They couldn’t pick out the good people who had spiritual understanding and pursued the truth. Is this not the case? (It is.) Therefore, you must know how to select people, so that in the end, God’s chosen people will look at the chosen person and say, “Wow, this choice of leader is really good! They have comprehension ability, they’re so practical in their duty and work, they take the lead in everything, and they’re loving toward others. This is a really good choice of leader!” With such a leader watering the church, the brothers and sisters will gain more and more from their church life, they will enjoy it more and more, and they will be motivated as they pursue the truth and do their duty. You see, choosing good leaders and workers is absolutely crucial, isn’t it? (It is.)

Question 19: The disasters in our country have been becoming more and more severe recently. Earthquakes are also becoming more frequent, and the aftershocks are constant. Seeing these disasters, I know that God’s words have been fulfilled. I feel a bit worried and anxious. If a disaster were to happen to me, how can I reach a point where I don’t complain against God, can truly submit to Him, and can stand firm in my testimony in the midst of disaster?

Answer: Most people see the disasters growing ever greater and feel anxious in their hearts, worrying that they won’t be able to attain salvation. So how should this problem be resolved? Do you have a path forward? Finding a path forward is absolutely crucial. With the disasters growing ever greater, the key is to urgently equip yourselves with the truth. So how does one do that? The most important thing is to read God’s words—reading God’s words is most crucial. You must also do your duty. Being able to do your duty is also crucial. In doing your duty, you must submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements and learn to experience God’s work and the judgment and chastisement of His words. In this way, you will gain the truth quickly. At the same time, when you encounter difficulties and problems in your duty, you must practice seeking the truth to resolve them. Once you can truly resolve problems and have experiential testimonies of practicing the truth, you can be assured of your salvation. Those who have experiential testimonies have a greater hope of surviving. As for those without, it’s hard to say what will happen to them.

So, as the disasters grow ever greater, which truths are most crucial to equip yourselves with? For example, if a disaster were to suddenly strike, and your unbelieving relatives died in an instant, would this be a great trial? (It would.) Tell me, even if everyone in a given family believes in God, will their outcomes be the same? They will not. In a given family, only those who pursue the truth are the preordained people of God. Some people don’t pursue or understand the truth. They just perform a bit of labor, but not enough to be considered loyal laborers. When the disasters reach a certain point, such people will be swept away and perish in disaster. So, if God takes away your family members who are laborers, will you complain against God because of it, saying, “I’ve believed in God and expended myself for Him all this time, so why didn’t God protect my family? Why didn’t He bless me? I won’t believe anymore!”? If you really stop believing and withdraw, then you will have been revealed to be a tare, and you will be eliminated. As the disasters intensify, shouldn’t you be well prepared with this aspect of the truth? (Yes.) You must be well prepared with this aspect of the truth. If you are not, you’ll be in trouble, and it won’t be easy for you to stand firm when a trial befalls you. At this time, this is a very serious matter. Disasters strike without warning, and people can die in an instant. You must now diligently equip yourself with the truth and fulfill your duty. You also have to learn lessons from what happens to others. For example, let’s say the unbelieving spouse or parents of a brother or sister dies. When this trial befalls them, you can see if they can stand firm in their witness. If they can, they have hope of surviving, because they have borne resounding testimony for God. A sister in Brazil stood firm in her witness. Her mother became gravely ill, and she prayed to God, “Oh God, if my mother really dies, I won’t complain against You. Everything is preordained by You and contains Your good intentions. I am willing to submit to Your arrangements. I thank You and praise You!” You see, when she encountered such a trial, she was not negative, much less did she complain against God. She remained able to submit to God and thank Him. This is what it means to have true testimony. You can learn lessons from the experiential testimonies of others, seeing how they stood firm in their testimony and how they relied on God and sought the truth. This is also a way to equip yourself with the truth and lay a foundation for your own future experiences. Now that the disasters are growing ever greater, things like this will happen at any time. There’s no telling when someone in your family might die. You must be prepared and you must be well equipped with the truth. If, when the time comes, you can submit to God without complaining, and even thank and praise God and stand firm in your testimony, then you will have passed the test. There is another aspect that is also very important, which is to do your duty well now to fulfill God’s commission and to do the work of preaching the gospel as quickly as possible. To preach the gospel, you must be well-equipped with the truth. We must identify those who sincerely believe in God and can accept the truth, and as soon as we spot a good person, we must quickly preach to them. Even if it takes a bit more effort, we must gain them. As for those who don’t pursue the truth and fall short of the truth, we don’t need to waste our efforts on them. Remember, in doing your duty, you must do useful work, and you must do what God has commissioned you to do. What God has commissioned you to do are God’s requirements, and they are the truth, the truth that God directly asks you to put into practice. Only by putting these truths into practice can you receive God’s approval. In your duty, don’t waste any effort. Don’t do things that are unrelated to the truth. No matter how many things you do that are unrelated to the truth, God will not remember them. Understood? (Yes.) So what is meant by things that are unrelated to the truth? This refers to things that God has not commissioned you to do. If you do them, you are just fumbling around on the outside, and none of these actions are of any meaning. For example, if you are a church leader, which people does God commission you to water, and the watering of which people is related to the truth? First, you must know that no matter how many people there are in a church, only a portion of them can accept the truth. Another portion just want to eat their fill of loaves and are muddle-headed. They just want to realize their beautiful dream of entering the kingdom of heaven by believing in God. These people do not accept the truth and fall short of the truth. So, tell me, which of these two types of people should be watered first, and which should be the focus of your watering? (The focus should be on watering those who can accept the truth.) Correct. Watering those who can accept the truth is the work that God has commissioned every leader and worker to do. So the watering of which people is unrelated to the truth? (Watering those who want to eat their fill of loaves, who are muddle-headed in their faith and don’t accept the truth.) Now that you understand this matter, let’s talk about doing the work of the church. What work is related to the truth and what work is not? The work you do of supplying God’s chosen people with the truth is related to the truth. The work you do of leading God’s chosen people to preach the gospel is also related to the truth. But if you specialize in the work of general affairs, and whenever you see a brother or sister facing difficulties at home while doing their duty, you busy yourself with helping them solve their practical life problems—is this related to the truth? (No.) Your doing these things is of no use. Leaders and workers who lack spiritual understanding love to do this kind of thing, but those who truly have spiritual understanding and understand the truth do not. You must not do these things. If you are always doing these things, then you are just a manager of general affairs, not a true leader or worker. True leaders and workers are busy every day watering the church, supplying the truth, and practicing preaching the gospel. They can’t even keep up with these proper duties, so how could they have time to see to such external affairs? Those things are unrelated to the truth. No matter how much you do these tasks, it is of no value. Understood? (Yes.) Let’s take a few more examples. If you have an unbeliever in your family—an unbeliever is a nonbeliever—but you dedicate everything you have to them, give them all your time and energy, and live your entire life for them, is what you are doing then unrelated to the truth? (Yes.) This is also unrelated to the truth. For another example, some people find a partner and get married, and they are then unable to do their duty. They spend their days taking care of their family and children. Is this unrelated to the truth? (Yes.) Some people see a family in hardship and go to take care of them, helping widows carry water or doing chores for the blind. Is this related to the truth? (No.) Some people see a brother or sister who is single and keep thinking about setting them up with someone. Is this related to the truth? (No.) Some people see a brother or sister’s family struggling financially and want to find them a good job so they can earn more money and live a prosperous life. Is this related to the truth? (No.) And some people are particularly vain, spending hours every day dressing themselves up and putting on makeup, leaving them with only a few hours to actually do their duty. Are these things related to the truth? (No.) Some people spend their days busy with matters of the flesh, doing a great number of things that are unrelated to the truth. Do such people pursue the truth? To believe in God but not pursue the truth is to be a disbeliever. God does not approve of such people. No matter how much a person gratifies their flesh, it is meaningless. One should be content with having food and clothing. The key is to be able to set aside more time to expend oneself for God and do one’s duty, to do something of value, and to do one’s duty well according to the principles. What you do then will be related to the truth, and that is a life of the highest value. Do you now see clearly what is meant by things that are unrelated to the truth? (Somewhat.) Some people, although their family is not wealthy and their life is a bit hard, have no worries about food or clothing. But they are never satisfied and always want to earn more money to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh more. This leads to them having too little time to expend themselves for God and do their duty. Is what they are doing related to the truth? (No.) Some people say, “I have to find a partner. If I don’t, my life will be too hard.” As a result, they find a partner and no longer have time to do their duty. Is this related to the truth? (No.) They find a partner and, in doing so, forfeit their chance of attaining salvation. Is such a person wise or foolish? (They are foolish.) See? When people do too many things that are unrelated to the truth, it’s a real problem, isn’t it? Do such people pursue the truth? (No.) So how should people pursue the truth? How can one practice to gain the truth as quickly as possible? One must do a great number of things that are related to the truth. You must do what God has commissioned you to do. You must not do things that are unrelated to God’s commission, things that are not part of pursuing the truth, things that are meaningless, or things that are worthless. Practicing this way is correct, and you will progress quickly. If your heart is right and you can strive toward the truth, and if you can seek the truth when things befall you, then the Holy Spirit will work on you. He will enlighten and illuminate you, allowing you to understand the truth and have a path to put it into practice. If you can put the truth into practice and stand firm in your testimony in some key matters, then you will be able to gain God’s approval. When disasters come, you will be protected by God and you will not die. Does that answer the question? (Yes.)

Do you have any other questions? (No.) Then let’s end our gathering here for today. Goodbye! (Goodbye, brother!)