By Hu Yang, France

In late May 2018, I was fortunate enough to hear the last days gospel of Almighty God. By reading Almighty God’s words and listening to fellowships given by the brothers and sisters, I became aware of the factual truth of mankind’s corruption by Satan, God’s six-thousand-year management plan to save mankind and the aim of God’s three stages of work. I also came to understand how one can enter into the heavenly kingdom and the future destination and end for mankind, as well as other truths. After a period of seeking and investigating, I became absolutely certain that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned, after which I actively attended our church gatherings. As I read more and more of God’s words, I came to some understanding of the painstaking efforts God goes to to save mankind, and I wanted to spread the gospel to my husband so that he too could soon receive God’s salvation of the last days. Unexpectedly, on the afternoon on which I had arranged with my church sisters to preach the gospel to my husband, something happened which I could never have foreseen …

My Husband Is Deceived by Lies and He Tries to Stop Me From Believing in God

On that afternoon, my husband was sitting on the couch watching a video on his phone as he usually did, when he suddenly came across a rumor that was being put about by the Chinese Communist government about The Church of Almighty God: “When someone starts believing in Almighty God, they then go out to preach the gospel, and they abandon their family….” Instantly, my husband became furious, and said that he wouldn’t allow me to believe in Almighty God any longer. I spoke patiently to him, saying, “These are just lies spread by the CCP. Brothers and sisters who preach the gospel and testify for God don’t abandon their families….” But my husband had already fallen for the lies and he simply wouldn’t listen. He said angrily, “I don’t care! You can believe in Jehovah God if you want, or you can believe in the Lord Jesus, and I’ll support you. So long as you don’t believe in Almighty God, I’ll do whatever you want!” I said patiently, “Although Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus and Almighty God have different names, They are all one God. They are just three different names taken by God in His work at different times. In order to save mankind, God performs three stages of work. The first stage was the work of the Age of Law performed by Jehovah God, the second stage was the work of the Age of Grace performed by the Lord Jesus, and the third stage is the work of the Age of Kingdom performed by Almighty God. After the Lord Jesus accomplished the second stage of work, that of the work of redemption, He prophesied, ‘I come quickly’ (Revelation 22:12). Now the Lord Jesus has returned as Almighty God, Christ of the last days. Almighty God has expressed millions of words and He performs the work of judgment beginning in God’s house in order to purify and change man, to save man utterly from the clutches of Satan and to ultimately lead man into His kingdom. Having been through a period of seeking and investigating, I see that the words expressed by Almighty God are the truth and that they reveal all the mysteries in the Bible. I am certain that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, and my belief in Almighty God allows me to keep pace with the footsteps of the Lamb. You haven’t sought or investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days and you haven’t read the words expressed by Almighty God, so how can you so blindly believe in those lies and oppose my belief in God?”

My husband couldn’t argue with me and, in a rage, he threw his phone down onto the coffee table, stood, and bellowed at me, “Say what you want, but you do not have my permission to believe in Almighty God!” I was stunned to see my husband act this way. We’d been married for ten years and he’d always been good to me. He’d never once opposed anything I’d ever wanted or anything I’d ever wanted to do, much less had he ever been as angry as he was on this day. I never expected him to act so terribly toward me after being deceived by the CCP’s lies or that he would oppose my belief in God so much—I was beside myself. I thought of how my church sisters would soon be arriving at my home to preach the gospel to my husband. Now that my husband was so dead set against my belief in God, I had no choice but to quietly take my phone and message the two sisters, telling them not to come. No sooner had I finished sending the message to my church sisters than my husband suddenly snatched my phone away and deleted The Church of Almighty God app as well as the software I used to contact my church sisters, and he once again warned me not to believe in Almighty God anymore.

Seeing how deeply fooled my husband had been by the CCP’s lies, I felt very anxious. I had no idea what he would do next to try to force me to give up my belief, or whether I would be able to attend gatherings with my brothers and sisters ever again…. I felt so afraid and helpless, and all I could do was call on God over and over in my heart: “O Almighty God! I feel so weak right now and I don’t know what to do for the best. My stature is so small, and I understand too few truths. Please help me and open up a way for me. O God! No matter how my husband treats me, I will always believe in You and follow You. I will not betray You no matter what happens. I ask that You give me faith and strength. I will stand testimony for You. Please enlighten me and guide me so that I may understand Your will. Thank You God!” After praying, I instantly felt much more tranquil inside, and I no longer felt so afraid. I glanced at my husband who didn’t seem as ferocious as he had been before and, to my surprise, he just went off to bed. I knew then that God had heard my prayer. When I was at my most helpless, God had given me faith and courage and He had opened up a way for me. God truly is the real and living Almighty God, and in my heart, I offered up my thanks and praise to Him. My husband slept all that afternoon, but I still felt a little worried, worried that he would get angry at me again when he woke up, and so I prayed to God silently in my heart.

To my surprise, when my husband woke up, he saw that I was still sitting on the couch and, without me saying anything, he took the initiative and said, “I was wrong earlier. I’ve reinstalled that software onto your phone. You can believe in God if you want to. I won’t get in your way anymore.” I was so happy to hear him say this and I knew that all that had happened was by the arrangement of God. Only then did I truly come to appreciate God’s omnipotence and sovereignty, and I thought of God’s words which say: “Man’s heart and spirit are held in the hand of God, everything of his life is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, whether living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear in accordance with God’s thoughts. Such is the way in which God presides over all things” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God Is the Source of Man’s Life). “Yes,” I thought. “Whether living or dead, all things are held in God’s hands. Our every thought and idea changes under the sovereignty and orchestrations of God. It was God’s deed that transformed my husband’s attitude, and it was God listening to my prayers. God knows that I am of small stature and, when I was at my most helpless, He gave me faith and courage and He opened up a way for me.” I kept thanking Almighty God from the bottom of my heart.

All of This Turns Out to Be a Battle in the Spirit World

At a church gathering the next day, I told my brothers and sisters about what had happened. After listening to me speak, Sister Feng was filled with emotion and said, “Thanks be to God! What happened to you lets us see that God is by our side and that He is our support at need. As long as we call on Him in all sincerity, then He will listen to our prayers and will open up a way for us. At the same time, however, we should understand that when your husband tries to stop you from believing in God, though it may appear as your family member trying to disrupt you, in truth it is actually a spiritual battle that is raging! We can’t see and understand things with our physical eyes, but instead we must learn to see things from the perspective of God’s words and the truth!” I looked at Sister Feng in astonishment. “Spiritual battle?” I thought. “What could that mean?”

Just then, the sister read a passage of God’s words to me: “God does His work, God cares for a person, looks upon this person, and all the while Satan dogs His every step. Whomever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ploys to tempt, disrupt and wreck the work God does, all in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; all those that God wants it wants for itself, it wants to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? … In warring with God, and trailing along behind Him, Satan’s objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants to gain, to completely extinguish those whom God wants to gain. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession, to be used by it—this is its objective” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique IV).

The sister then gave fellowship, saying, “From God’s words, we are able to see the truth of the battle in the spirit world, and we are able to see Satan’s evil essence. God created mankind, and He hopes that we will be able to hear His words and obey Him. Ever since we were corrupted by Satan, however, we have grown distant from God and we have fallen under the dark influence of Satan; we are bound and enslaved by Satan, and we live lives of unbearable pain. God could not bear to see us ravaged and ruined by Satan, and so He began His six-thousand-year management plan to save mankind in order to take us back from Satan’s clutches, to enable us to cast off once and for all the bonds, the control and the harm of Satan, to attain God’s true salvation, to be led into God’s kingdom and to enjoy God’s blessings and promises. Satan, however, does not want us to attain God’s true salvation, and so it employs all manner of means and does its utmost to deceive and disturb us and to obstruct us from following God and worshiping God. It does all this in an attempt to make us become negative and weak and to make us lose our faith in God to the point where we shun God and betray Him, and we lose God’s salvation of the last days.

“For example, there are some brothers and sisters who, after they accept God’s work of the last days, encounter opposition to their belief in God from their family members because they have seen the rumors spread online by the CCP; when some brothers and sisters attend gatherings and read God’s words, they are half asleep and their hearts are in turmoil, and some brothers and sisters or their family members get sick. These are just a few examples of the despicable methods Satan customarily uses to disturb and tempt people. Hu Yang, you wanted to spread the gospel to your husband so that he too could attain God’s salvation, but just as you were about to do that, Satan used its lies to deceive your husband, to make him oppose God’s work of the last days and to set him on his guard. Not only would he then not seek or investigate the true way, but he also tried to stop you from believing in God. On the surface, it appeared as though your husband was trying to obstruct you, but behind all this, it was actually Satan putting its deceitful schemes into action. Satan uses all manner of lies to deceive those in our families who do not believe in God in order to make them obstruct us and coerce us, in an attempt to make us negative and weak and to make us give up the true way, so that we lose once and for all the salvation of God and end up devoured by Satan. Sister, when our family members try to obstruct us, we should see things from the perspective of the spirit world, for behind our family members’ actions lies hidden the despicable aims of Satan!”

After listening to the sister fellowship in this way, my heart suddenly filled with light. So, all along I’d been facing a battle that was raging in the spirit world! I thought of how my husband had begun to try to force me to give up my belief in God after he’d seen the CCP’s lies, and I knew that this had all been brought about by the deceptions of Satan. Satan truly is so despicable, so hateful!