502 The Meaning of Rebelling Against the Flesh
I
Whether you can gain life before God and what your ultimate end will be,
depend on how you carry out your rebellion against the flesh.
God has saved you and chosen you and predestined you,
yet if today you are unwilling to satisfy Him,
you are unwilling to practice the truth,
you are unwilling to rebel against your own flesh
with a genuine God-loving heart,
in the end you will ruin yourself, and will thus endure extreme pain.
If you always pander to the flesh,
Satan will gradually swallow you up,
and leave you without life, or the touch of the Spirit,
until one day, you’re completely dark inside.
When you live in darkness, Satan will take you captive,
you will no longer have God in your heart,
and at that time you will deny God’s existence and leave Him.
II
Thus, if people wish to love God,
they must pay the price of pain and endure hardship.
There is no need for external fervency and hardship,
no need for reading more and running about more;
instead, they should put aside the things within them:
the extravagant thoughts, personal interests,
and their own considerations, notions, and intents. This is God’s intention.
God asks people to practice the truth
mainly to prune the things inside them,
to prune their thoughts and notions that are not in line with God’s intentions.
There are many things within people that are not fit for use by God,
and there is much of the rebellious disposition of the flesh,
so, people need to learn the lesson of rebelling against the flesh
more profoundly, more profoundly.
This is what God calls the suffering
that He asked man to undergo with Him.
This is what God calls the suffering
that He asked man to undergo with Him.
from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God