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

II. Questions Regarding Life Entry

Question 11: When I come to know through eating and drinking God’s words that I believe in God only to enter the kingdom of heaven and be blessed, and that I don’t sincerely believe in God, I lose my enthusiasm for my duty. I feel very negative and no longer have a goal to pursue. How can I stand properly in the place of a created being and do my duty not to be blessed, but to love and satisfy God?

Answer: People are driven when they do their duty to be blessed, but they have no drive when it comes to doing their duty to love, satisfy, and submit to God. Is this not so? (It is.) So what exactly should a person do their duty for in order to make it more meaningful and able to give them a clear conscience? (Doing one’s duty to love and satisfy God is most meaningful.) What should a person do their duty for in order to better shame Satan? (Doing one’s duty to love and satisfy God better shames Satan.) To suffer and pay a price in order to submit to God, love God, and do the duty of a created being well and satisfy God, and to be willing to forsake all fleshly enjoyments best shame Satan. These actions best prove that a person has gained the truth and become up to standard as a created being, and also best comfort God. Mankind has been corrupted by Satan for over six thousand years. Has God received any comfort from corrupt mankind? He has not. God is waiting to perfect a group of people into ones who are of one heart and mind with Him in this final stage of work. Only then will God’s heart truly be comforted. In the last days, God has expressed the truth and done the work of thoroughly saving and perfecting man. God is now waiting for people to bear this testimony for Him, and He is waiting for people to do their duty well in order to love and satisfy Him and follow His will. This is what most satisfies God and comforts His heart. Let’s use an example that may not be entirely apt. When parents raise their children, what gives them the most comfort? Their children being filial to them. Some people see that their parents have money and pretend to be filial in order to inherit their parents’ money. Others are filial to their parents not to get an inheritance or benefits, but to fulfill their filial duty as children. Tell me, which of these two types of people brings their parents more comfort? (The ones who act to fulfill their filial duty.) They don’t covet their inheritance. They say, “I don’t want to inherit a penny of my parents’ money. I’ll be content as long as I can fulfill my filial duty. It doesn’t matter if I’m rich or poor.” You see how such a person lives with an open and clear conscience? This is what truly comforts one’s parents! Believing in God and doing one’s duty are the same as this. If a person can truly do their duty to love and satisfy God, this is what comforts God’s heart the most. But some people just can’t do this. They always covet benefits. They are willing to suffer any hardship and pay any price to be blessed, receive rewards, and gain a crown, but when it comes to pursuing the truth and loving God, they just can’t do it. Some people always do good things in front of others so they can be seen, and win others’ high regard and approval. They think that in this way, when God sees what they are doing, He’ll approve of them, and they’ll be happy, thinking, “Great! Now I can be rewarded!” Other people do good things behind the scenes. They believe in not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing and in not needing others to see the good things they’ve done, nor for God to know of these things. Isn’t such a person wise? (Yes.) To others, this person might seem a bit foolish. So why do we say they are wise? How can this be explained? They don’t demand that God see the good things they do or remember their good deeds so that they can be blessed and enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. They make no demands of God. They think, “If God blesses me, this is His exaltation and grace. If He doesn’t, I won’t covet these blessings. I will just do the duty of a created being and not be constrained by this matter.” You see, they don’t seek God’s blessings. So why do they suffer and pay a price in their duty? They say, “I just do my duty to fulfill God’s commission, and to satisfy God, the Creator, so that I don’t live in vain. I ask for nothing else.” If you were to ask such a person, “If your outcome is still to perish and go to hell after suffering and paying a price for God, how would you handle that?” they would say, “Whatever my outcome is, it is God’s righteousness. I will submit to it all. I have no personal demands.” This is their attitude toward being blessed. Is it good? (Yes.) So, the person who asked the question says they lose their drive in their duty when they let go of their intention to gain blessings. Isn’t this a case of not seeing things clearly? If you can’t let go of your intentions to gain blessings and you always do your duty for the sake of your personal interests, ambitions, and desires, then in the end, you really won’t be blessed. If you can truly let go of your intentions to gain blessings and say, “I do my duty entirely to satisfy God. I do my duty to live out a human likeness, to shame Satan, to prove that I am up to standard as a created being, to prove that I have not failed to live up to God’s intentions in the commission He has given me, and to prove that I have fulfilled God’s commission!” how wonderful that would be! If you can live this way, you will have lived honorably and with a clear conscience. Living this way has value. You will have lived out a human likeness, become up to standard as a created being, and gained God’s approval. Is such a person not blessed? (They are.) If you can truly let go of your intentions to gain blessings, then you will truly be blessed. You will be the most blessed person of all.

Question 12: When I reveal corrupt dispositions, I pray to God, read His words to know my corrupt dispositions and seek a path of practice. But I find it very difficult to quickly accept the truth and put it into practice, and I keep revealing my corrupt dispositions again and again. How should I experience God’s work so that I can practice the truth more quickly and resolve my corrupt dispositions?

Answer: When you reveal corrupt dispositions, being able to pray to God and seek the truth to know yourself is a good start. Practicing this way brings you to a turning point. Just persist in praying and seeking the truth this way. Each time you reveal corruption, pray and seek the truth. As you pray and seek the truth time and again, does your knowledge of yourself not deepen each time? (It does.) When your knowledge of yourself reaches the point where you can loathe your corrupt dispositions and yourself, does it become easy to practice the truth? (It does.) And is it still easy to reveal corruption? (No.) In the beginning, when you reveal corruption, you don’t think it’s a big deal. But on the day you come to loathe your corrupt dispositions, revealing these things again will feel as disgusting and painful as having swallowed a dead fly. At this point, will you still reveal corruption? (No.) Why not? (Because you’d be disgusted with yourself.) When people don’t have the truth, they don’t think much of any of the corruption they reveal. They think that everyone lives by these things, and that there’s safety in numbers. So you don’t feel you’re too corrupt. But on the day you come to understand the truth and truly loathe your corrupt dispositions in your faith, you’ll look back on the corruption you used to reveal and feel disgusted, thinking, “How could I have been so stupid? I wasn’t human, I was an animal!” Once you understand the truth, your feelings when you look back on your sins are completely different. Why is that? (Because after coming to understand the truth, people can truly know themselves and see their own nature essence clearly.) Once people understand the truth and see through to their corrupt essence, they begin to loathe themselves. When you truly loathe and spurn yourself, will you still love yourself? (No.) Will you still be considerate of yourself and indulge yourself? (No.) You will even curse yourself. You’ll pray to God, saying, “If I commit this sin again, may I die a wretched death and be punished in hell.” Tell me, if a person loathes sin to this degree, is it easy for them to cast it off? (Yes.) You must know your corrupt dispositions to the point of loathing and being disgusted with yourself. At this level, you will begin to change. For example, though you may have once felt you were honorable for certain things you said or oaths you swore, now, you’ll say, “What I said can’t be trusted. My words were worthless.” You’ll no longer believe your own words or the oaths you swear. You will doubt, deny, condemn, and curse yourself. This is the deepest level of knowing oneself. Once you reach this level, you will come upon a turning point. Your corrupt dispositions will be cast off, and your disposition will begin to change. Is this not how it is? (It is.) So, when you first start practicing knowing yourself, you reveal your corrupt dispositions again and again. You may gain some knowledge of them today, but tomorrow they’ll be revealed again. This just means your knowledge of yourself isn’t deep enough yet. But don’t lose heart, and keep on going through experiences. Whenever you reveal corruption, pray and seek the truth to know yourself. When you’ve experienced to the point where you loathe yourself, are disgusted with yourself, and even curse yourself, see if you will keep revealing it. At that point, it will be only natural for you to no longer reveal corruption and for your corrupt dispositions to have changed. Even if others incite you or try to make you sin, you won’t. You’ll say, “Even if you pay me, I won’t reveal this corruption or commit this sin again. If I ever reveal this corruption or commit this sin again, may God curse and punish me.” Therefore, when a person’s knowledge of themselves reaches a certain depth, their corrupt dispositions begin to change. If your knowledge of yourself is too shallow, then this problem won’t be resolved.

Question 13: By eating and drinking God’s words, I’ve come to recognize that the people, events, and things I encounter each day are all set up by God and contain His intentions, such as illness or being reassigned in my duty. So when these things happen, I always want to know the exact reason they’re happening to me so that I can turn things around. How should I seek and understand God’s intentions, know why God lets these things happen to me, and how can I learn lessons from them?

Answer: It’s no small thing for a person to be able to see that all the people, events, and things they encounter are orchestrated and arranged by God. Once a person has this insight, they’re not far from submitting to God. If you truly saw that God has good intentions in setting up situations, and that these things are all for us to learn lessons, would you still say, “Oh God, why have You set up this situation for me? What do You mean by this? Do I really need to learn this lesson?” Would you still try to argue with God like this? What is your purpose in wanting to understand God’s intentions? Do you need to have God explain to you why He let such a thing happen before you’ll accept it and submit? If God doesn’t tell you His reasons explicitly, you won’t submit, and you’ll just resist these things and refuse to accept them. Isn’t this what you mean? (Yes.) Some people who believe in God won’t release the hawk until they see the rabbit. They pray, “Oh God, could You let me go to heaven and see where You are? Then I’ll believe in You.” What do you think of saying such a thing? (It lacks reason.) If you really went to heaven and saw the Lord Jesus, and He even said a few words to you, would you then have true faith in God? That’s not true faith; that would just be faith based on sight. You must never pray like this, “Oh God, please show me a sign or a wonder so that I can have the drive to follow You. Oh God, please let me see Your face and speak a few words with You. Let me accept Your commission in person. That way I’ll be more driven in my duty.” Never make such demands of God. If you pray like this, you are the most foolish of people, and it just reveals that you have no faith. If you only believe in something because you’ve seen it with your own eyes, can that be called faith? If so, you cannot bear a testimony of faith. Therefore, seeing is not testimony. Faith is testimony. Is this not how it is? (It is.) You have to see this matter clearly. If, when you encounter various people, events, and things, you always say, “God has permitted this situation to befall me, and I must understand His intentions before I can submit,” is that a good attitude to have? (No.) Is this not the same as only believing what you can see? By saying this, what you really mean is, “I will only believe if I see God.”

You now know that everything God arranges—all people, events, and things—contains His good intentions. This is to help you learn lessons, and it’s to train you, cleanse you, and perfect you. Having this faith is enough. Even if there are matters in which you don’t understand God’s intentions for a while, that’s okay. Just accept these things from God first, submit, and learn lessons. For example, say God arranges for someone to cooperate with you, and this person always looks down on you and finds fault with you, you should pray to God and seek the truth, saying, “God, this person is a troublemaker. What lesson should I learn from doing my duty with him? Please enlighten me.” A couple of days later, this person comes looking for trouble with you again. You get annoyed and don’t want to do your duty anymore. You just want to argue with him and debate what’s right and wrong. Are you not getting sidetracked from what’s proper? (Yes.) This is when you realize, “It’s not right for me to be constrained by this person in my duty. It seems the first lesson I should learn is to free myself from his constraints and not be disturbed by him in my duty. I also need to discern what he says and not act in a hotheaded way.” Is this not the first lesson you should learn? When this happens, don’t act in a hotheaded way. First, learn to be tolerant and patient. No matter how this person may bully you and no matter how unreasonable he is, you must pray to God, do your duty well, and not be constrained by him. This way, you’ll have some stature and live out some human likeness, and you will have learned a lesson. Once you’ve learned this lesson, that person will have finished rendering his service, and perhaps through some other matter, that situation will go away. God sets up some situations just to let you learn such lessons. Sometimes, God does these things to have you learn about harmonious cooperation. For example, if you’re cooperating with someone who isn’t unreasonable or evil, and they just have corrupt dispositions and are a bit arrogant and self-righteous, then you need to enter into the truth of harmonious cooperation. At this point, you must be cautious. You can’t treat them as an enemy; you must treat them as a brother or sister and help them with love. This is key. If what they say is right, you should accept it. If what they say is wrong, you shouldn’t act in a hotheaded way and argue with them. If they can accept the truth, you can fellowship with them. If they can’t accept your fellowship for the time being, then you should say less. Don’t act in a hotheaded way or provoke them, and just treat them according to principles. This is the lesson you must learn when cooperating with others. You must be wise in how you treat people, and you must also learn to be tolerant and patient. Patience is something people have to spend their whole lives learning. Generally, what immature people lack most is patience. The thing that foolish people lack most is wisdom. Other things people lack most are love and submission. All these shortcomings can only be made up for by learning lessons through experiencing various circumstances. Once you’ve experienced more of these, you’ll know how to experience various circumstances in a way that allows you to learn lessons, and you’ll know which lessons are most beneficial for you. Tell me, is it not highly practical for God to set up situations for people so they can learn lessons from them? (It is.) Apart from learning lessons in such situations, can people make up for their shortcomings by practicing on their own? (No.) Without being tempered by situations, there is no way a person can learn these lessons. No matter how many doctrines they understand, it’s all useless. Therefore, the people, events, and things God arranges are truly precious. When you’ve learned all the lessons in these situations and can understand the truth and gain something from them, you will see that what God does is so good, and that everything He does is truly perfect. God is so lovely, beautiful, and good. God is truly the Creator of the heavens and earth and all things! Therefore, learning lessons by experiencing various circumstances is absolutely crucial. How much patience do you have? How much tolerance do you have? How much love do you have? When things are to your liking and don’t affect your interests, you seem to be a loving person, but when someone disgusts you, your love for them immediately vanishes. When someone breaks your heart, your love for them is gone in an instant. It’s clear that people’s love is too limited, hardly even worth mentioning. Look at how great God’s love is and the extent to which He can tolerate people! In His work of saving man, God cleanses our corrupt dispositions and also uses people, events, and things to have us live out all aspects of normal humanity, that is to say, to live out a bit of what God has and is, such as wisdom, love, humility, and patience. These are all part of what God has and is. If you can live out even a little of such things, it’s incredible, and your normal humanity will be perfected. Is that not so? (It is.) Therefore, we corrupt humans are in great need of the tempering of situations. Is it a good thing to learn lessons in these situations? (It is.)

Question 14: Even though I know I should pray and seek God’s words to resolve my corrupt dispositions when they are revealed, I have so much corruption that I don’t know where to start. I want to seek the brother’s advice on how to eat and drink God’s words to achieve better results. Where should I start in resolving my corrupt dispositions?

Answer: In doing one’s duty and work, one should stick to the principle of distinguishing between priorities. So, in pursuing the truth, isn’t it also necessary to distinguish between priorities? What does it mean to distinguish between the non-urgency and urgency of minor tasks and major tasks? What do these words mean? Let’s first use doing one’s duty as an example. “Minor tasks” refers to work that is not important or crucial, that is to say, work that is not urgent. These are “minor tasks.” “Major tasks” refers to work that is important and key. No matter how busy you are, you must attend to it. You can’t neglect it, because this work is too important. If a problem arises, it must be solved first and cannot be delayed. This is what is meant by “major tasks.” “Urgency” in this context means that the work is pressing and must be dealt with immediately. “Non-urgency” in this context refers to work that is not pressing and can be put off for a while. It can be done when conditions are right or when there’s an opportunity. This is what is meant by “non-urgency” here. Once you can distinguish between these priorities, you’ll have a clear approach to your work and no matter how complex the work is, you’ll be able to sort it out. First, determine which tasks are most important and do them first. If an urgent task comes up while you’re doing important work, then you should handle the urgent task first and then continue with the important work. After completing the most important work, that is, once this important work is proceeding normally, you can then do the work that was deferred. Once the deferred work has been properly arranged and is on the right track, you can then do minor tasks and make arrangements for them. In this way, you’ve attended to all the work at hand according to its importance and urgency. This is how you prioritize your work. So, how should one prioritize matters in the pursuit of the truth? What is the truth that you all need to understand most? You must have a thorough understanding of the truths concerning the visions and you must first lay a foundation. Some people expend themselves for God but can’t forsake their fleshly pleasures. Why is this? It’s because they don’t have a clear understanding of the truths concerning the visions, and because their stature is small. If they forsake things out of a momentary enthusiasm, it will be troublesome later, and they might regret it. Therefore, the most crucial thing for you all is to first equip yourselves with the truth. Once you’ve thoroughly equipped yourselves with the truths concerning the visions, you will have laid a foundation. Then, when you seek to equip yourselves with the truths of life entry, you will be on solid ground. So where does one begin in pursuing life entry? It begins with accepting the judgment and chastisement of God’s words and knowing oneself. You should check yourself against the words of God that judge and expose people and focus on reflecting on and knowing yourself. Especially in the course of your duty, if you constantly reflect on and know yourself, your life entry will gradually deepen. This is because the more you do your duty, the more you can discover your corrupt dispositions. The more you do your duty, the more you can see how deeply corrupt you are, that you don’t even possess the reason of normal humanity, that you don’t have much love or patience for others, that you don’t practice the truth, and that you are always arrogant and self-righteous when you’re with others, unwilling to listen to anyone. At this point, you will say, “Oh! It’s only by doing my duty that I’ve discovered I have so many corrupt dispositions and so little normal humanity. Sometimes I don’t even have any conscience or reason. I’m corrupt to the core.” You see, your duty can make you see how deeply corrupt you are. If you don’t do your duty and just busy yourself with your job, earning money, and living a good life, will you see how deeply corrupt you are? (No.) If you believe in God at home by yourself but don’t do a duty in the church, will you see how deeply corrupt you are? (No.) Then in what kind of situation is a person’s deep corruption revealed? (One’s duty.) Experiencing God’s work by doing one’s duty is so real and practical! Once you begin to do your duty, your corruption is revealed. After your corruption is revealed, you’ll have some knowledge of yourself and say, “Oh! I’m only just beginning to understand myself a little. It turns out I’m not such a good person after all. I used to think I was the best person, but now that I’m doing my duty, I’ve discovered I’m not a good person at all. I’m quite rebellious and have no submission. No matter who says what is right, I’m unwilling to accept it. I’m always finding others objectionable, and I keep seeing problems in everyone, thinking that nobody is as good as me. I’m so arrogant and self-righteous with everyone. It’s only by doing my duty that I’ve discovered how many issues there are within me. This is a real problem!” Tell me, is this not a gain? The first gain a person makes from doing their duty is seeing how deeply corrupt they are, that they have no truth, and just how much they lack. Is this not a result of doing one’s duty? (It is.)

Some people don’t think it’s good to achieve these results in their duty. They say, “Doing my duty is no good. After doing my duty, I feel I’m truly corrupt, not worthy of being called human, and that I lack so much. I used to think I was great, that I was a loving, humble, obedient, and good person, but why do I feel like I’m a terrible person now that I’m doing my duty? Is this caused by doing my duty? If I don’t do my duty, will I still be revealed as such a bad person?” What kind of person says such things? (An ignorant person who lacks spiritual understanding.) This is the absurd sort of person, the most absurd sort of person. Is this not so? (It is.) Back when I believed in the Lord, I went to a certain place to preach. After I had preached there for a day, some people said, “Something’s not right. After he preached to us for a day, how come I’ve discovered I don’t have any truth at all? I used to understand the truth and have life. I felt quite enriched. But after listening to his sermon, why is it that I feel like I’m nothing and that I don’t have a shred of truth? How come I feel blind, poor, and pitiful? Is this right? I don’t think what he’s preaching is right.” Haven’t I run into some absurd people? (Yes.) In fact, no matter where I go to preach, most people feel the sermon is good, that it has illumination, and they come to realize they don’t understand the truth and are poor and pitiful inside. They then begin to pursue the truth and even invite me back to preach again. In this way, they keep listening to sermons, and gradually they come to understand the truth, and their states get better and better. But those absurd people have been believers in the religious world for many years and haven’t gained any truth. After listening to my sermon, they see this fact, but they don’t reflect on themselves or accept the truth. Instead, they blame my sermon for being wrong. Aren’t such people a real headache? These people are most absurd! So how do you all feel after listening to my sermons? (We feel that we’ve gained a lot.) Are your states better or worse than before? (Better. We realize just how much we lack and we come to know what areas we should practice and enter in.) Most people probably feel this way, “I didn’t feel I lacked much before, and I even thought I had some truth reality. How come after listening to your sermon, I feel like I have nothing?” Do you all feel this way? (Yes.) What’s going on here? (Brother, through your fellowship, we’ve gained a deeper knowledge of ourselves, and we see how much we lack and have gained a bit of self-awareness.) This is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work. Once the Holy Spirit works, people come to know themselves and feel they have nothing. The more that people read God’s words and listen to sermons, the more they feel poor and pitiful; the more that people understand the truth, the more they realize they are poor and pitiful; the more that people experience the Holy Spirit’s work, the more they feel they are poor and pitiful. When you’ve achieved results in these areas, you will feel this way. Feeling this way is the most normal phenomenon in the process of life entry. So now you know how to pursue the truth and how to pursue life entry, right? (Right.)