Fellowship From the Brother Above – November 3, 2025 (Part One)

People are seeing that the disasters are getting bigger and bigger, and they inevitably feel somewhat worried and distressed about whether they will be able to attain salvation and survive. It is quite normal for people to have this issue. So how should this issue be resolved? Do you have a path forward? Perhaps many people are not clear about this path. Some newcomers say, “There are already seven volumes of The Word Appears in the Flesh. There are so many words of God, so how many years will it take me to read and experience them all? The amount of God’s words we can eat and drink and the truths we can understand in a day is limited. The disasters are getting bigger and bigger before our very eyes, can we still attain salvation? How exactly must we eat and drink God’s words to gain the truth and attain salvation?” Is this not something that most people are anxious and worried about? (It is.) Others say, “I have believed in the Lord for so many years and yet I haven’t even finished reading the Bible. The words of Almighty God are seven or eight times more numerous than those in the Bible. When will I ever finish reading them? Will I be able to gain the truth and attain salvation before this world is destroyed?” This is a concern that most people have. So, how exactly must one read God’s words to gain the truth and attain salvation? Do we have to finish reading and experiencing all of God’s words? If that were the case, there would certainly not be enough time. The time remaining is too short and too limited. The disasters are already getting bigger and bigger. Wars are constantly escalating, and the scope of their impact is growing ever wider, while plagues are constantly spreading and worsening. In addition, volcanic eruptions, great earthquakes, and great famines are all about to occur. Famine has already struck some places, and people have nothing to eat—this is a disaster! These are no small disasters—they are great catastrophes that will destroy mankind. When each disaster strikes, many people will die. Therefore, if people have to finish reading all of God’s words before they can attain salvation, it will be too late. So, how exactly must one eat and drink God’s words to gain the truth and attain salvation? There is a shortcut here, and this is what we will fellowship on today. This shortcut is pursuing the truth. Pursuing the truth is the path to attaining salvation. Many people say, “Why must we pursue the truth? What problems can pursuing the truth actually resolve?” If people cannot see through to this matter, will they be willing to pursue the truth? (No.) Many people say, “We listen to sermons and fellowship every day, and we understand some truths. But what exactly is the use of understanding these truths? What problems can they actually resolve? We have believed in the Lord Jesus for so many years, and our conduct is already very good. The Lord asked us to forsake everything to expend ourselves for God, and we have done so. The Lord asked us to be the salt and the light, and we have many good behaviors. The Lord asked us to suffer for the sake of our duties, and we have done so without hesitation. Do we still need to pursue the truth?” This is the view held by religious people. They say, “We have many good behaviors, and we all love the Lord. We have already met God’s requirements, so why should we accept the truths expressed by Almighty God? Why should we experience judgment and chastisement?” Are these not man’s notions and imaginings? (They are.) The views held by corrupt mankind all stem from man’s notions and imaginings. Man’s notions and imaginings are not the truth, and they fall far short of the standard of God’s requirements. Some people cannot see exactly how their views fall short. Why is this? It is because they do not know themselves. People in the Age of Grace read the Bible a lot, and they can even recite it from memory, but do they have any knowledge of the corrupt dispositions within them? (No.) In their belief in the Lord, people only know to confess their sins, but they do not know why they sin, or why they live in this vicious cycle of sinning by day and confessing by night and are never able to break free from sin. Religious people cannot see through this matter. No matter how many years they have believed in the Lord or how much biblical knowledge they have, they do not know what the root of man’s sin is. Are they not blind? (They are.) Then tell me, does understanding the Bible mean that one understands the truth? (It does not.) No matter how much of the Bible people understand, it does not mean that they understand the truth. Perhaps some people will refute me when I say this, asking, “Are none of the words in the Bible the truth?” Who dares to say that none of the words in the Bible are the truth? Nobody. The Bible records many of God’s words, and are God’s words not the truth? All of God’s words are the truth. The words spoken by Jehovah God are the truth, and the words spoken by the Lord Jesus are also the truth. Whatever words God speaks are the truth. This is a fact. Therefore, no one dares to say that none of the words in the Bible are the truth. But after reading the Bible, why do you still not know yourself? Why do you not know what the root of man’s sin is? Is this not a major problem? (It is.) The truth can enable people to know themselves and can resolve their corruption. Only that which can achieve these things is the genuine truth. Although the words expressed by God that came to be recorded in the Bible are also the truth, those truths are relatively shallow, and they lack specific, detailed principles and paths of practice. People have no way to practice and enter into them in detail, and their experience of them is limited. Therefore, people cannot come to resolve their corrupt dispositions. Is this not the case? (It is.) The truth expressed by Almighty God in the last days is very specific and detailed. It can resolve people’s corrupt dispositions and the root of their sin, and it can transform and perfect people. So tell me, are the words of Almighty God not the truth? (They are.) The words of the Lord Jesus are the truth, and even more so, the words of Almighty God are the truth. Moreover, these truths expressed by Almighty God are higher and more practical. Is this not correct? (It is.) Then, since Almighty God has expressed so many truths, why do many people in the religious world stubbornly refuse to accept Almighty God or acknowledge that Almighty God is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus returned? Where have they gone wrong? (They do not accept the truth.) The religious world does not know what the truth is or where the source of the truth lies. They cannot see through to this matter. In fact, the Lord Jesus made this clear in a prophecy long ago. The Lord Jesus said: “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The source of the truth is the Holy Spirit. Only God can express all truths. With Almighty God having expressed so many truths, is this not the coming of the Spirit of truth? (It is.) This is the coming of the Spirit of truth. Only the Spirit of truth could express so many truths. But the religious world does not look at the truth expressed by Almighty God. They only see that Almighty God appears to be an ordinary person, and so they do not accept Him. This shows that they do not know the truth or God’s work. No one in the religious world can understand why God must become flesh. The incarnation is a profound mystery. If God Himself did not directly reveal this mystery, no one among all of mankind would be able to know the incarnate God. You see, when the Lord Jesus appeared and worked, although many people followed Him, no one recognized that He was God, that He was Christ. Only Peter said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). What did the Lord Jesus say in response? “… for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). Peter said this because the Holy Spirit revealed it to him. If the Holy Spirit had not revealed this to him, he would not have been able to say it. Therefore, the mystery of the incarnation is too deep for anyone to fathom. The more ordinary and normal the incarnate God is, the less people are able to discover that He is God. Almighty God looks like an ordinary person, but how is it that this ordinary person can express so many truths? Almighty God has expressed many times more truths than the Lord Jesus did. Do you not feel that this is a mystery? If you have no awareness of this matter at all, if you do not investigate or seek the truth expressed by Almighty God in the slightest, and you even dare to pass judgment upon Almighty God as being nothing but an ordinary person, then you will go to hell and suffer punishment because you have condemned and blasphemed God. Therefore, this ordinary person determines your fate, outcome, and destination. Is this not a serious issue? (It is.) Remember, how one treats the incarnate God is a serious issue.

Do you now know why you must pursue the truth? The Lord Jesus said: “Not every one that said to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that follows the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Only those who follow the will of the heavenly Father can enter the kingdom of heaven. So, how can one come to follow the will of the heavenly Father? You are deeply corrupted, so can you come to follow the will of the heavenly Father merely by believing in the Lord and having your sins forgiven? (No.) One cannot come to follow the will of the heavenly Father merely by having their sins forgiven. Why not? Where does the problem lie? Who can see through this matter? This is the problem that pursuing the truth aims to resolve. Mankind has been deeply corrupted by Satan and is filled with satanic dispositions. Can such people submit to God? (No.) Can they love God? Can they be considerate of God’s intentions? (No.) If people cannot do these things, they cannot follow God’s will. Therefore, to follow God’s will, people need to experience God’s judgment and chastisement and the process of being perfected by God. People need to pursue the truth to come to understand the truth and cast off their corrupt dispositions. If you do not experience God’s judgment and chastisement or pursue the truth, then becoming someone who follows God’s will is nothing but a pipe dream, and something that can never be achieved. By pursuing the truth and experiencing God’s judgment and chastisement, you can come to follow God’s will, attain salvation, and survive. Let’s look at the matter of Noah building the ark. This example is meaningful! Tell me, was there any relationship between building the ark and pursuing the truth? (No.) Building the ark had little to do with pursuing the truth. Building the ark was just a job. However, Noah built this ark because God commissioned him to do so. God called upon Noah directly and gave him this task. After God told Noah why the ark had to be built, along with its design and specifications, he accepted God’s commission and began to build the ark. As he was building the ark, God did not appear to Noah again, but he kept on building the ark according to God’s requirements, persevering for one hundred and twenty years until he finished and completed God’s commission. So, what difficulties did Noah experience in building the ark? What hardships did he encounter? We can figure out some of these just by thinking. In that era, there was no industrial technology. How much suffering Noah must have endured, and how great a price he must have paid in having to rely entirely on human labor to build such a large ark! Apart from this, he also had to endure people’s ridicule and slander. Many people slandered him, saying, “Noah, who told you that God is going to destroy the world with a flood? Who told you that mankind’s sins have reached the eyes of God and that God is therefore going to unleash His wrath? Is there any basis for this? Are these things you have seen with your own eyes? How can you expect us to believe you?” Noah had no way to explain it clearly. At that time, there were no video recordings or audio recordings, and he could only say that these were things he had seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. But no matter what he said, people did not believe him, and they even mocked Noah, saying that he was being crazy and stupid. Tell me, during those one hundred and twenty years of building the ark, would doubts about God’s instructions have arisen in Noah’s heart? Would he have doubted whether he had dreamed or really heard God’s voice? If an ordinary person had no knowledge of God and no God-fearing heart, would they be likely to develop doubts about this matter? (Yes.) Even if a person heard God’s words with their own ears and experienced this matter personally, after a long time, they would still have doubts. But Noah never had doubts. He said, “Since I made a promise to God that I will build the ark, I must do this job well. My mission in this life is to build the ark.” In the end, it took Noah one hundred and twenty years to finish building the ark. So what kind of life did Noah live during those one hundred and twenty years? Did he have an easy life? (No.) He probably grew some crops to maintain a normal life, but he had no other income. He was content with just having food and clothing. He put all his energy into building the ark. All year round, he immersed himself in working hard to build the ark, and he persisted like this for one hundred and twenty years. Can people nowadays persist in their duty for such a long time? To say nothing of persisting for one hundred and twenty years, there’s no telling whether they can even persist for a few years. If no one provides for you or shepherds you, how many years can you persist in your duty? If the church does not take care of you or resolve the difficulties in your life, how many years can you persist in your duty? It’s hard to say, isn’t it? Is this a problem? (It is.) Everyone must reflect on this matter. Look at some leaders and workers—they are afraid of encountering difficulties. They always ponder: “There are many difficulties in doing church work well, and there are also many difficulties in doing my duty in a way that is up to standard. I have to read many of God’s words and understand many truths. But God’s words are too numerous! Where do I even start? Plus, resolving problems and difficulties requires me to pay a high price. Doing a duty is just too hard!” If the church does not resolve the difficulties in their lives, how long can such people persist in their duty? They won’t last more than a few years. Before long, they might go back to the secular world to earn money. Is this not correct? (It is.) But how was Noah able to persist in building the ark for one hundred and twenty years? (Noah had good humanity and a God-fearing heart.) At that time, God had not expressed so many truths, and Noah did not understand many truths. Yet, despite this, he was able to persist in his duty for one hundred and twenty years. Tell me, just how many times better must his humanity, conscience, and reason have been than those of good people today? Nowadays, some among you say that you have the best humanity and that you are the most sincere in your belief, but if God were to entrust you with a commission, how long could you persist? You wouldn’t last long. Noah did not understand many truths, yet he was able to accept God’s commission and spend one hundred and twenty years completing it. He followed God’s will. Do you think it’s easy to follow God’s will? (It is not.) It is not a matter of toiling, nor is it a matter of doing a duty for a few years. Rather, it is a matter of expending oneself for God for a lifetime, living one’s entire life for God’s commission, and striving ceaselessly as long as one lives. These are not things that ordinary people can achieve. Would you say that Noah’s faith in God was great? The faith of Noah, Job, and Abraham is rare among mankind. They are exemplars for the saints of all ages. Few people have faith greater than theirs, and so they gained God’s approval. And why did they gain God’s approval? It is because they spent their entire lives completing God’s commission and bore resounding testimony for God. This testimony was no ordinary testimony. It is not something one can stand firm in just by understanding a little truth. By understanding a little truth, you might be able to temporarily triumph over Satan and stand firm in your testimony, but tomorrow or the day after, Satan will come to tempt you again. Satan constantly comes to tempt you, and these temptations grow greater and greater. So, how many of Satan’s temptations can that little bit of truth enable you to overcome? Can you persist in spending your entire life completing God’s commission? (No.) Noah was able to spend his entire life completing God’s commission. This testimony is truly resounding. Who among people today could persist for one hundred and twenty years to complete God’s commission? Not a single one. Your stature is still too small!

Many people feel that their stature is too small. They say, “The church elected me to be a church leader, but there are many difficulties in doing church work. Some people are lazy and unwilling to practice the truth, and they are passive in their duties. I don’t know how to resolve these things. Why can’t I shoulder the commission God has given me?” They feel that being a church leader is too hard, and that it’s difficult to complete this commission. There are others who, when preaching the gospel, become negative when potential gospel recipients raise questions they cannot answer, and they become unwilling to preach the gospel. You see, even just the work of preaching the gospel has many difficulties. If you want to complete this commission and persist in the work of preaching the gospel for ten, twenty, or thirty years, is this easy to achieve? Some people cannot persist in this work for even two or three years before becoming negative, and they beat a retreat and become unwilling to preach the gospel. They say, “Preaching the gospel is too hard. Potential gospel recipients have many questions I can’t resolve or answer. It’d be better if I didn’t preach the gospel. I’m not suitable for doing this duty.” If you can’t answer these potential gospel recipients, will you seek the truth? If you don’t know how to seek the truth, then when you encounter difficulties in your duty, you will just become negative and feel that you are not suited for this duty. You see, it is not easy for people to do the work of preaching the gospel well! Then is it easy to do the work of a church well? (No.) What about the work of a district or region? (That is even more difficult.) Then is it easy to write experiential testimony articles or movie scripts? (That’s not easy either.) No matter what duty one does, it is not easy. So can you persist to the end? Can you persist in doing your work well? Can you overcome difficulties when you encounter them? Can you seek the truth to resolve difficulties? Can you come to follow God’s will? Difficulties in one’s duty can reveal whether a person has faith. If you have no faith, you are prone to becoming negative and giving up on your duty. Can such people measure up to Noah? (No.) It was not easy for Noah to build the ark because the area required for the ark was very large. The ark had to be at least over one hundred meters long and over twenty meters wide; otherwise, how could it accommodate a male and female of every kind of animal? Plus, he had to store at least a year’s worth of food. If the ark were too small, it simply wouldn’t have been able to hold it all! When God asked Noah to build the ark, did He give him any material support? Did He resolve the difficulties in his life? No. God only told him to build the ark and of the ark’s design and specifications, and he was able to persist for so many years. Yet now, when we do our duties, not only do we have brothers and sisters cooperating, but we also have the incarnate God personally leading and guiding us. If you have any difficulties or problems in your work, as long as you raise them, I will immediately fellowship with you to resolve them. Under these circumstances, if you still cannot persist in your duty for long before losing your drive, then how does your faith compare to Noah’s? It falls far short. Some people want to just give up after doing their duty for a short time and encountering some difficulties. This is not having true faith. There are also those who have been leaders for a year but still cannot share any testimony of life experience. They have no experience and can only speak words and doctrines. Can such people lead the church? Those who lead the church must be able to use the truth to resolve problems and be able to share their own practical experiences. If you do not have much experience, then you must think of whatever means you can to help them understand the truth. You must be able to select good gospel movies and experiential testimony videos for the brothers and sisters. Through watching movies and experiential testimonies, they can also understand some truths and their problems can be resolved. Wouldn’t they then have faith to follow God? This is doing real work. If you cannot resolve any practical problems, and you just want to speak words and doctrines to show off and flaunt yourself, enjoying the high esteem of brothers and sisters, then this is utterly despicable and shameless. Such a person is a false leader. Is this not so? (It is.) Some people might not understand this, and they might say, “I hold gatherings and preach every day. I hold over ten hours of gatherings for brothers and sisters a day. Why do you say I am a false leader?” They do not admit they are a false leader. They think that holding gatherings and preaching every day is doing real work. Is this view correct? Then let me ask you: “You fellowshipped for so long in the gatherings, but what problems did you resolve? Did you resolve problems in people’s life entry, or did you resolve problems in people’s duties? Or did you resolve the problem of antichrists, evil people, and false leaders disturbing the church’s work? If you didn’t resolve any of these problems, then what was the use of the sermons you preached?” Some leaders and workers just act as people pleasers who never offend anyone. When they see antichrists, evil people, false leaders, and disbelievers causing disruptions and disturbances, and the church life being affected, they don’t care. They just turn a blind eye and do nothing to stop it. When I say such a person is a false leader, they remain unconvinced and try to argue back. What is the problem here? Is it not that they do not know themselves at all? (It is.) They have no knowledge of themselves whatsoever. No matter how many years you preach in gatherings, it is nothing but words and doctrines, and you cannot resolve a single practical problem. You cannot even resolve the matter of antichrists, evil people, disbelievers, and false leaders causing disruptions and disturbances. If you’re not a false leader, what are you? You are not worthy to preach, nor are you worthy to be a leader or worker. Look at how I preach. Do I speak words and doctrines? (No.) Then what do I speak? (Brother, you speak words from your heart and words that resolve practical problems.) When I preach, I don’t speak empty words or empty doctrines, nor do I speak spiritual theories. I always fellowship on the truth by addressing practical problems and using relevant examples. I do not hold gatherings to show off, but to resolve problems. That is why in every gathering I ask you what problems you have, and I fellowship on the truth specifically addressing your problems. Gatherings are for the purpose of resolving problems. If you hold a gathering, no matter how long it lasts, if it doesn’t resolve any problems, then what is the use of it? Is this not wasting time? And if you hold up God’s chosen people in doing their duty, what mistake have you committed? Have you not covertly interfered with God’s chosen people’s performance of their duty? (Yes.) Leaving aside for the moment that you are disrupting and disturbing God’s work, you are simply holding up God’s chosen people in doing their duties. In doing so, you have failed them, and even more, you are indebted to God, because you have delayed the work of God’s house. You make everyone spend several hours listening to you preach, but you do not fellowship on the truth or resolve problems. Then what is your purpose? You are just doing all this to show off. There are quite a few people who preach just to flaunt and show off. They speak nothing but empty spiritual theories and do not resolve any problems for people. Then are they following God’s will in their preaching? Are they providing for God’s chosen people? (No.) Does such people’s performance of their duty accord with God’s intentions? (It does not.) Is this not the behavior of a false leader? (It is.) The Pharisees of old never testified to God in their preaching and work. Instead, they constantly exalted and testified to themselves to make people look up to them and worship them. Then what is the difference between the actions of false leaders and the Pharisees? (There is none.) Their essence is the same. There is not much difference.