Now, many people in the religious world who believe in the Lord long to welcome Him and are investigating the true way. They hear that The Church of Almighty God testifies that the Lord Jesus has already returned and is expressing the truth and doing the work of judgment in the last days, and so the most crucial thing in waiting for the Lord’s return is to seek to hear His voice. They feel that this is in line with the Lord’s words, but they are still confused, thinking, “Since people will see the Lord descend on a cloud, why is it still necessary to hear His voice?” Let’s fellowship on this question. The Lord Jesus prophesied that there would be two ways in which the Lord would return: One is as the Son of man descending in secret, and the other is a public descent on a cloud. If the Lord were to only descend on a cloud in the last days, then people wouldn’t need to hear God’s voice to welcome the Lord. This is because the impact of the Lord descending publicly on a cloud will be immense—truly earth-shattering and majestic—and people will be able to see it directly—they will not need to hear God’s voice to welcome the Lord. But most people in the religious world lack comprehension ability. They fixate on the idea of seeing the Lord descend on a cloud, thinking that as long as they see the Lord descend on a cloud with their own eyes, they will be able to welcome Him. Therefore, people who believe that the Lord will descend on a cloud do not focus on hearing God’s voice. This is the situation across the entire religious world right now. They are all waiting for the Lord to descend on a cloud, and no one is seeking to hear God’s voice. The consequences of holding such a mindset regarding welcoming the Lord don’t bear thinking about! Let’s look at the prophecies in the Bible about the Lord’s return: “Behold, I come as a thief” (Revelation 16:15). “Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord does come” (Matthew 24:42). “But of that day and hour knows no man, not the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36). When people who truly have comprehension ability see these prophecies of the Lord Jesus about His return, they will ponder: The Lord will definitely return as the Son of man, so how are we to welcome the Son of man when He comes? How will we know that the Lord has come? The Lord Jesus said these words: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). This being the case, you must prepare to hear God’s voice in order to welcome the coming of the Son of man. Then how should you prepare to hear God’s voice? If it were a matter of seeing the Lord descend on a cloud, would there still be a need to prepare? Anyone can see and sense the Lord descending on a cloud; there is no need to prepare. But to hear God’s voice, you must be watchful and prepared—you need to be watchful and prepared because nobody knows when God will come. In addition, the Lord returns as the Son of man—people cannot recognize Him by sight alone. Therefore, from the words of the Lord Jesus, we can see that it is easy to welcome the Lord descending on a cloud, but to welcome the appearance of the Son of man, we need to carefully listen for God’s voice. This presents a difficulty, and so we must be watchful and prepared. Then let’s talk more about why we must be watchful and prepared. The Lord Jesus said: “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26–27). It can be seen that the circumstances of the Son of man’s descent will be just like those in the time of Noah: people eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage. These circumstances are, of course, those that are present before the catastrophes. These pre-catastrophe circumstances are very easily overlooked, because mankind is so wicked before the catastrophes—all living amid the evil trends of eating, drinking, making merry, and marrying and remarrying. But during the catastrophes, will these evil trends of eating, drinking, and marrying and remarrying still exist? They will have long since disappeared. When the great plague descended, who knows how many people died? The cities were deserted, and the countryside was deserted too. The trend of eating, drinking, and marrying and remarrying simply disappeared, so it is clear that the days that were like those of Noah have passed. Those who failed to welcome the Lord before the catastrophes all fell into them, and only those who heard God’s voice and accepted God’s work of the last days were caught up before God to attend the feast of the kingdom of heaven, accept God’s judgment, and be cleansed; they all testify to God’s appearance and work. These people are the group of overcomers made by God before the catastrophes.

Now we can all see clearly that the Son of man comes by descending in secret before the catastrophes, while He will descend on a cloud publicly only after the great catastrophes have ended. The timing and circumstances of the Son of man’s descent in secret and His public descent after the great catastrophes end are different: One happens before the catastrophes, and the other happens after the catastrophes. The descent that happens before the catastrophes is the Son of man coming to express the truth and do the work of judgment beginning with the house of God. In the same way that the Lord Jesus appeared and worked, God becomes incarnate to do the work of saving man. After the great catastrophes end, the Son of man will change His form and descend publicly on a cloud. At that time, God’s work of saving mankind will have ended, the kingdoms of Satan will have all been destroyed, and the nonbelievers who resist God and people in the religious world will basically all have perished. Therefore, when the Lord descends publicly on a cloud, He will reward the good and punish the evil. Even if a small number of those who do not accept the appearance and work of the Son of man are able to survive to see the Lord descend publicly on a cloud, they will still be targets for punishment. When that time comes, they will wail and gnash their teeth, and go straight to hell. Almighty God explicitly says: “Of the human beings within the universe, all those who are of devils will be annihilated. All who worship Satan will fall down amid My burning fire—that is, except for those now within the stream, all will be turned to ashes” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Words to the Entire Universe, Chapter 26). How should these words be understood? They mean that if you want to survive the catastrophes, you must accept God’s work of judgment in the last days. Those who do not accept God’s work of judgment will all perish, and those who just wait for the Lord to descend on a cloud will all be targeted for destruction. Therefore, God’s intention in having you welcome the Lord is for you to be wise virgins who are able to welcome the appearance of the Son of man. Those who welcome the appearance of the Son of man are blessed; this is a blessing preordained by God. But those who insist on waiting to see the Lord descend on a cloud before welcoming Him are all the most foolish virgins, because when they see the Lord descend on a cloud, this is not God’s blessing; it is a sign that they will be punished. Therefore, if you want to welcome the Lord, the key is to welcome the appearance and work of the Son of man. Only this is in line with God’s intention.

Now everyone should understand that to welcome the Son of man, you must focus on hearing God’s voice. This is because on the outside, the Son of man is just an ordinary person, exactly like the Lord Jesus; the only difference is that He can express the truth and do God’s work. If you want to recognize the incarnate Son of man, you must know how to hear God’s voice. So how can you become able to hear God’s voice? The most important thing is that you must know what the truth is. Even if you don’t understand the truth when you read God’s words, as long as you can feel in your heart that they are the truth, and can be certain that they are the truth, that is enough. If you do not know what the truth is and you feel nothing in your heart when you read God’s words, then you will be unable to hear God’s voice. Now, so many people around the world have accepted Almighty God. When they first read the words of Almighty God, they did not understand the truth either, but they could all feel that Almighty God’s words have authority and power, and that they are all the truth, and so they accepted Almighty God. The people who can hear God’s voice are the most blessed of all; this is a blessing bestowed upon them by God. As soon as God’s words are spoken, God’s sheep have a feeling in their hearts; they can sense that these words have such great authority, and that they are the truth. What do they rely on to be able to hear God’s voice? They rely on the intuition in their spirits. The intuition in their spirits is the sense that these words have such great authority, that these words are so profound, that these words come from God, and that no human could ever speak them. In addition, upon reading these words, they can be certain that they are the truth, and they feel that only the truth has authority and power. Such people feel something when they hear the words of truth. Therefore, the ability to hear God’s voice is based on the feeling in your spirit, on intuition. The Lord Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). The statement, “God’s sheep hear God’s voice,” isn’t telling us that God’s sheep must have experienced God’s words for a certain number of years, have life experience, and possess some true knowledge of God before they can hear His voice. Rather, it tells us that those who are God’s sheep will naturally hear God’s voice. This is an instinct possessed by God’s sheep; people who have spiritual understanding possess this instinct. Those who possess this instinct are God’s sheep, and those who do not are not God’s sheep. Almighty God has now expressed so many truths, yet so many people in the religious world are still resisting and condemning Him. These people are not God’s sheep. They are foolish virgins who have already fallen into darkness. They are antichrists, devils, and Satans.

So how can you hear God’s voice? You need to seek and investigate. First, the most important thing is that you must be able to recognize that God’s words have authority and power. In addition, you must recognize that God’s words are the truth, that these truths are not possessed by any human, and that no human could speak them no matter how many years they have believed in God. God’s words are all truth. The truth is a positive thing. The truth is completely different from human notions and imaginings, and it is also completely different from human thoughts and theories. God’s words represent God’s intentions, God’s disposition, and what God has and is, and only God can express them. Another point is that God’s words can unveil the mysteries in the Bible, as well as the various mysteries of God’s work. No human can unveil these mysteries, nor will the Holy Spirit reveal these mysteries to man; only God can unveil them. In hearing God’s voice, you have to mainly focus on these aspects. If you are able to hear God’s voice, and can at a minimum be certain that the One expressing these truths is sent by God, then you at least won’t resist and condemn God. If, on top of that, you can be certain that these truths can only be expressed by the incarnate God, that is even better, and you will have welcomed the Lord.

Let’s talk more about what the Lord Jesus meant when He told us to be watchful and prepared. There are at least three things that we must be watchful of and prepared for. The first is how we determine that the Son of man is the incarnate God and the Christ of the last days when He comes. If you are not watchful and prepared, you will not be able to welcome the Lord. This is because false christs appear in the last days to mislead people—those without the truth are easily misled by false christs. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall mislead the very elect” (Matthew 24:23–24). If you do not understand the truth, you are in danger of being misled by false christs. It is dangerous if you are not watchful and prepared; if you fail to welcome the true Christ and are instead misled by a false christ, you will end up being punished. Therefore, in welcoming the Lord’s return, it is all too easy to take the wrong path and be misled by false christs if you are not watchful. This is the first thing that you must be watchful of. The second thing that you must be watchful of is that if you do not know the truth and do not understand the truth, you are liable to be misled by religious pastors and the various heresies and fallacies of the religious world. Some people feel that Almighty God’s words are quite good when they hear them, but they think, “When investigating the true way, I must get my pastor’s agreement. I need to let my pastor act as a gatekeeper to see whether this way is true or false. That way, nothing can go wrong.” But the moment they ask their pastor, the pastor spouts some heresies and fallacies, and they are misled and deny all the words of Almighty God. In this situation, if they encounter someone who understands the truth and fellowships the truth to them, and they learn to discern between the true way and false ways, and ultimately recognize the true way, accept the truth, and are not pulled back in by the religious world, then they are blessed. But if they encounter evil people, or the absurd sort of people who lack spiritual understanding, and these people also spout some heresies and fallacies, then they will be misled away. Therefore, if you are not watchful in welcoming the Lord, you are at risk of being misled. It will not do if you do not understand the prophecies of the Bible, if you do not have the ability to discern the truth, or if your caliber is poor; it absolutely won’t do if you are constantly disturbed by negative figures. This is the second thing that you must be watchful of. The third thing that you must be watchful of is that it is easy to develop notions about Christ if you do not have the truth. For example, when some people see that Christ has normal humanity and is not at all supernatural on the outside, they develop notions. They think, “When the Lord Jesus came, He performed signs and wonders. Why does Almighty God of the last days not perform any signs and wonders? If He does not perform signs and wonders, is He really God Himself?” They do not know that Almighty God of the last days expresses the truth to do the work of judgment and has made a group of overcomers. This is the greatest sign and wonder of all, and it is sufficient to prove that Almighty God is God incarnate and Christ of the last days. For another example, some people become negative when disasters come upon them, thinking that if Almighty God were the true God, He should protect them. It is dangerous for them to hold this notion, as they are liable to betray God! You see, people who do not understand the truth always develop notions about Christ—there are quite a few people like this. This is the third thing that you need to be watchful of. To welcome Christ of the last days, you must be watchful and prepare oil, and this mainly refers to these three things. Without being watchful of these three things, even if you accept Christ of the last days, you will still find it hard to stand firm when you encounter any disasters or temptations, or hear any negative propaganda or the misleading words of pastors.

It is so important to be watchful and prepared in welcoming the Lord! Without being watchful and prepared, it is too easy to be misled and too easy to miss your opportunity to be saved. Many people not only fail to be watchful and prepared, but they also do not seek or investigate in the slightest. They always listen to their pastors and always look for answers in the Bible. Such people have no way of welcoming the Lord. Almighty God says: “Since we are searching for the footsteps of God, it behooves us to search for God’s intentions, for the words of God, for His utterances. This is because wherever there are new words spoken by God, the voice of God is there, and wherever there are the footsteps of God, God’s deeds are there; wherever there is the expression of God, there God appears, and wherever God appears, there the truth, the way, and the life exist. In searching for God’s footsteps, you have overlooked the words ‘God is the truth, the way, and the life.’ And so, many people, even when they receive the truth, do not believe that they have found God’s footsteps, and still less do they acknowledge the appearance of God. What a grave mistake!” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 1: The Appearance of God Has Ushered in a New Age).