Excerpt 72

Those who act as leaders should not pay too much attention to work or always focus on their own status, nor should they set high standards for themselves, and then go on to think up every possible method to solve everyone’s problems so that everybody knows: “I am the leader, I have this position, this status, and I also have this quality, this competence. And since I can lead you, I can also provide for you.” It is troublesome that they are able to speak such words. In what way is it troublesome? If your orientation is incorrect and if you have no principles in handling your affairs, then everything you do will be wrong and produce deviations. If your motivation is wrong, everything you do will be wrong. Focus on seeking the truth, understanding the truth, understanding the essence of the truth of visions, and mastering this aspect of the principles—that is correct. As long as you don’t go beyond these bounds when things befall you, or when you are dealing with problems, you will be able to help others and resolve their difficulties, and you will be a qualified leader. However, if you only understand some doctrines, and if you only equip yourself with them, listen to more sermons, and master a few more words and letters in order to lead, and if you just offer a few doctrines, words, and letters when trying to solve someone’s problems, and as a result, do not solve any of their problems, then you do not possess the reality of being a leader, and you are just an empty frame. What kind of leader is this? (A false leader.) This is a false leader. You are unable to perform actual work. Even if no one exposes and reports a false leader, the life of God’s chosen people in the church will not progress, problems will accumulate, and the false leader will have to bear the blame and be compelled to step down. If you are a false leader, then no matter how high your position is, you are still a false leader. Now, whether or not you can perform actual work, and whether or not you are a false leader—these are not the most important things. So, what is the most important thing? You must now hurry to pursue the truth and focus on entering into life. Once you have entered into life, transformed your disposition, understood God’s will, and are able to resolve your own incorrect states, it will be easy for you to solve other people’s problems. Once you understand the truth and enter into the truth reality, will you still be afraid that you cannot solve others’ problems? You won’t need to worry about whether you can lead well. If you possess the truth reality, you will naturally be able to do your duty well and solve actual problems. You must understand this thoroughly. If you do not understand this thoroughly, and always want to guard your status as a leader, and to establish your good image in the hearts of God’s chosen people, then your intention is wrong, and you will naturally be disgraced and fail. If you are a person who loves the truth and who focuses on their own life entry, and you relinquish your human ambitions, desires, and erroneous pursuits, and are not constrained by these things, then you will be able to pursue the truth, and you will naturally come to understand each aspect of the truth over time. In this way, you will be in your element when it comes to helping others and you will have no difficulty in doing so. Therefore, you should not guard your status. It is an empty frame. It is useless. It will bring you no benefits, and it will also not help you to understand the truth. Moreover, it can mislead you into committing many errors, and it can also cause you to go astray. For corrupt mankind, status is a trap. But no one can avoid this hurdle, all must pass through it, it just depends on how you approach it. If you approach it using human means, you will not be able to restrain or forsake yourself. This can only be resolved using the truth. The truth can solve this difficulty. If you can seek the truth, you can address this issue at its root. If you can’t use the truth to solve this difficulty, if you are merely restraining yourself and rebelling against things—rebelling against your thoughts, your approaches, your ideas, and always just rebelling in this way—what method is this? This is a negative and passive approach. You must use positive methods to resolve it, that is, you must resolve it with the truth, and understand this matter thoroughly. First look at the various approaches those antichrists and false leaders use to seek prestige, profit, and status and to defend their vanity and pride. After seeing them clearly, you will feel: “Oh my, how shameful, how truly shameful! Do I also use those approaches?” Then, you will start to reflect on yourself and soon you will realize: “Oh my, I also use many of those approaches, I am not so different from those antichrists and false leaders.” You will have some remorse in your heart, and say, “I cannot continue to protect my status and reveal this shamefulness,” resolving to learn a lesson. Stop focusing on whether others esteem you, how many problems you can solve for other people, whether or not someone listens to you, or how many people have a place for you in their hearts. If such matters are always in your heart, you will be distracted and affected, and you will have less time to pursue the truth. You have used your limited energy and your precious time in pursuing your ambitions and desires for prestige, profit, and status. As a result, you have not gained the truth and life. Although you have gained status and your ambitions and desires are satisfied, you have not entered into life and you have lost the work of the Holy Spirit. What will the ultimate outcome of this be? You will be cast out and punished. Why does this occur? You chose the wrong path. If you have reached Paul’s level, then you will be punished in the end. But if you have not reached Paul’s level, and you reverse your course in time, then there is room for redemption, and still hope for salvation.

Regardless of what problems believers in God have, whether they be the pursuit of status, prestige, profit, and wealth, or the satisfaction of personal ambitions and desires, in any case, all problems must be resolved through the pursuit of the truth. No problem can bypass the truth. No matter is separate from the truth. As soon as one departs from the truth in their belief in God, their belief is hollow. There is no use in pursuing anything else. Some people are merely content with doing impressive and glorious duties, making others look up to them and envy them. Is this useful? This is not your final end, nor is it your final reward, and it certainly is not your destination. So, regardless of the duty you perform, it is only temporary, it is not eternal. This is not a commendation that God has bestowed upon you, nor a reward that He has given you. Ultimately, whether people can attain salvation is not dependent on what duty they fulfill, but on whether they can understand and gain the truth, and on whether they can, in the end, entirely submit to God, put themselves at the mercy of His arrangement, give no consideration to their future and destiny, and become a qualified created being. God is righteous and holy, and these are the standards He uses to measure all mankind. These standards are immutable, and you must remember this. Inscribe these standards in your mind, and at any time, do not think of finding some other path to pursue some unreal thing. The requirements and standards God has for all who want to attain salvation are forever unchanging. They remain the same no matter who you are. You can achieve salvation only by believing in God according to God’s requirements and standards. If you find another path to pursue things that are vague, and imagine that you will succeed by luck, you are someone who resists and betrays God, and you will definitely be cursed and punished by God.

Excerpt 76

In the church, what kind of person is the most arrogant? How does their arrogance manifest itself? In which matters is their arrogance most exposed? Do you have discernment of this? The most arrogant people within the church are actually the wicked and the antichrists. Their arrogance far surpasses that of normal people, even to the point of being devoid of reason. In which matters is this easiest to see? It is when they are pruned and dealt with that their arrogant dispositions are most clearly exposed. Regardless of the magnitude of these antichrists’ evil deeds, if someone deals with them, they will become enraged and say: “Who are you to criticize me and lecture me? How many people can you lead? Can you preach sermons? Can you fellowship on the truth? If you were to take on my role, you would not be as good as me!” How does this sound to you? Do they have the slightest attitude of accepting the truth? If you approach being pruned and dealt with like this, that spells trouble. It proves that you do not possess any truth realities, and that your life disposition has not changed at all. Can a deeply corrupt, old person like this be a leader or worker? Can they perform the duty of serving God? Certainly not, for such people are not even qualified to be leaders or workers. To be a leader or worker, at the very least, one needs to have a bit of genuine experience, to understand some truths, to possess some realities, and to have the most basic level of obedience, which is to say, at the very least, one must be able to accept being pruned and dealt with—only this kind of person is qualified to be a leader or worker. If someone does not possess any truth realities at all, and they still argue and resist when they are pruned and dealt with, and do not accept the truth at all, and if such a person serves God, what do you think will happen? There is no doubt that they will resist God; they will not practice the truth, no matter what kind of work they are performing, and even less will they handle things according to the principles. Therefore, if people who do not possess any truth realities take on the roles of leaders or workers, they will certainly walk the path of the antichrist, and resist God. Why is it that many leaders and workers are exposed after doing just a bit of their duties? It is because they do not pursue the truth, instead they seek prestige, profit, and status, and as a result, they naturally embark upon the path of the antichrists. As far as all of you are concerned, if you were given responsibility for a church and no one checked up on you for six months, you would end up walking the wrong path and doing as you please. If you were left to your own devices for a year, you would end up leading other people astray, and they would all focus only on speaking the words and phrases of doctrine and comparing who is better than who. If you were left to your own devices for two years, you would lead people before you, people would obey you and not God, and in this way the church would degenerate and become religious. What is the reason for this? Have you ever thought about this question? What path does a person walk when they lead the church in this way? The path of the antichrists. Would you be like this? How long can you supply people with the little bit of the truth that you understand now? Can you lead people onto the right track of faith in God? If God’s chosen ones ask many questions, will you be able to answer them by fellowshiping on the truth according to God’s words? If you do not understand the truth, and all you do is preach some words and phrases of doctrine, then after listening to you a couple of times, people will have had enough, and when you keep preaching the words and phrases of doctrine, they will get sick of it, and will be able to discern it—in which case, why keep preaching at them? If you are someone who possesses reason, you should stop preaching doctrines to other people, you should stop lecturing people from on high, you should stand on the same footing as others, and you should eat, drink, and experience the words of God together with them. These are all manifestations of people who possess reason. Those who are especially arrogant and self-righteous easily lose their reason, and insist on preaching the words and phrases of doctrine to others, or they try to show off by seeking out and learning more profound spiritual theories, and thereby become people who try to deceive others. Acting like this is resisting God. Are you clear on what the consequences will be if you keep on preaching in this way? Are you clear on where you will lead people? What kind of problem is this, when you walk the path of the antichrist, lead people before you, and make them worship and obey you? Are you not competing with God for His chosen ones? This is bringing people before you who originally wanted to believe in God, to return to God, and to gain God, making them obey you and do as you say, and making them treat you as God. And what will the consequence of this be? These people originally believed in God in order to be saved, but ended up being deceived by you—not only will they not be saved, they will also suffer perdition and be destroyed. By acting in this way, you are leading people astray, you are deeply harming them, you are forfeiting those who believe in God. What crime are you guilty of? How can you make it up to them? You tricked new believers into your own hands, you made them your lambs, they all listen to you, they all follow you, and in your heart, you actually think: “I am powerful now; so many people listen to me, and the church is at my beck and call.” This nature of betrayal within man unconsciously makes you turn God into a mere figurehead, and you yourself then form some sort of religion or denomination. How do various religions and denominations arise? They arise in this way. Look at the leaders of each religion and each denomination—they are all arrogant and self-righteous, and their interpretations of the Bible lack context and are guided by their own notions and imaginings. They all rely on gifts and knowledge to do their work. If they could not preach at all, would people follow them? They do, after all, possess some knowledge and can preach some doctrines, or they know how to win others over and make use of some tricks. They use these things to deceive people, and to bring people before themselves. Nominally, those people believe in God, but in reality, they follow these leaders. When they encounter someone preaching the true way, some of them say, “We have to consult our leader about matters of faith.” See how people need the agreement and approval of others when it comes to believing in God and accepting the true way—is this not a problem? What have those leaders become, then? Have they not become Pharisees, false shepherds, antichrists, and stumbling blocks to people’s acceptance of the true way? Such people are of the same kind as Paul. Why do I say that? The epistles of Paul are recorded in the Bible and have been passed down for two thousand years. Throughout the whole Age of Grace, those who believed in the Lord often read Paul’s words and took them as their criterion—suffering, subduing one’s own body, and finally possessing the crown of righteousness…. People all believed in God according to Paul’s words and doctrines. Over these two thousand years, so many people have imitated Paul, worshiped him, and followed him. They have treated Paul’s words as scripture, they have replaced the words of the Lord Jesus with Paul’s words, and failed to practice God’s words. Is this not a deviation? This is a massive deviation. How much of God’s will could people understand during the Age of Grace? Those who followed Jesus at that time were, after all, in the minority, and those who knew Him were even fewer in number—even His disciples did not truly know Him. If people see a little bit of light in the Bible, it should not be thought to represent God’s will, and less still should a little bit of enlightenment be regarded as knowledge of God. People are all arrogant and conceited, and they do not hold God in their hearts. When they understand a few doctrines, they strike out on their own, which leads to the formation of many denominations. In the Age of Grace, God was not strict with man at all. All the religions and denominations in Jesus’ name had some of the work of the Holy Spirit; as long as there were no evil spirits working within it, the Holy Spirit would work upon any church, so the majority of people were able to enjoy God’s grace. In the past, God was not strict with people, no matter if their belief in Him was genuine or false, no matter if they followed others, or did not pursue the truth, because He had already predetermined that, at the last stage, all those predestined and chosen by Him would have to come before Him and accept His judgment. If, after accepting God’s work of the last days, people still continue to worship and follow others, if they do not pursue the truth but instead pursue blessings and crowns, then this is unforgivable. Such people will meet the same end as Paul. Why do I often use Paul and Peter as examples? These are two paths. Believers in God either follow the path of Peter or the path of Paul. These are the only two paths. Whether you are a follower or a leader, it is the same. If you cannot embark upon the path of Peter, then you are walking the path of Paul. This is unavoidable; there is no third path. Those who do not understand God’s will, who do not know God, who do not seek to understand the truth, and who are unable to absolutely obey God, must ultimately meet with the same end as Paul. If you do not seek to know God, or to understand God’s will, and you only strive to be able to speak the words and phrases of doctrine, and to preach spiritual theories, then you can only resist and betray God, for it is human nature to resist God. Things that do not align with the truth are guaranteed to stem from man’s will. Whatever stems from man’s will, regardless of whether it is good or bad in the eyes of man, disrupts the work of God. Some people think that even though they do not act in accordance with the truth in a few matters, they are not doing evil or resisting God. Is this right? If you do not act in accordance with the truth, then you are definitely violating the truth, and violating the truth is essentially resisting God; it’s just a different level of severity. Even if you are not classified as a person who resists God, God will not commend you, because you do not practice the truth, and you only do things that are not related to the truth, and only act according to your own will. Even if those who do not pursue the truth do no evil, will they be able to rid themselves of their corrupt dispositions? If they cannot rid themselves of their corrupt dispositions, then they are still living according to those corrupt dispositions. Even if they do not do anything to resist God, they cannot possibly obey God, and God will not commend such people.